A lab-grown diamond, also known as a synthetic, man-made or artificial diamond, has been created in a controlled laboratory environment rather than being mined from the earth.
Lab diamonds are produced using advanced technological processes, replicating the conditions under which a natural diamond is formed beneath the earth’s surface over millions of years.
There are two primary methods used to grow lab diamonds:
- High-Pressure High Temperature (HPHT): This method mimics the natural formation conditions of diamonds within the earth. A minute diamond seed is placed in carbon, the element that diamonds are made of, and then subjected to extreme temperatures (over 1,000 degrees Celsius) and pressures (over 5 GPa) until the carbon crystallizes around the seed, forming a diamond.
- Chemical Vapor Deposition (CVD): In the CVD process, a thin slice of diamond seed is placed inside a sealed chamber and heated to a high temperature. A gas mixture typically containing methane and hydrogen is then introduced. These gases are ionized into plasma using technology similar to microwaves or lasers. The ionization process breaks down the molecular bonds in the gases, and pure carbon adheres to the diamond seed, slowly building up a diamond layer by layer.
A lab-grown diamond has the same optical, chemical and physical properties as a naturally-mined diamond. Without specialized equipment, they are indistinguishable from each other.
The primary attraction of lab-grown diamonds is their lower cost compared to natural stones.
While they don’t retain value as well as natural diamonds because they are produced in much larger quantities, lab-made diamonds are a great option if you have a lower budget but would still like to buy a good-sized diamond.
