Lab Created Diamonds,
the Man Made Marvel

With lab created diamonds, man has found a way to recreate one of Mother Nature’s most spectacular achievements under controlled laboratory conditions. Hadar, Company worldwide distributor of Russian Brilliants®, hand-cut diamond simulants, separates fact from fiction about diamond manufacturing. Lab created diamonds look like the real thing because they are chemically and structurally identical to diamonds mined from the earth. However, to date, scientists have only been able to create diamonds that are yellow or pink in color. Russian Brilliants® on the other hand, are made to simulate Mother Nature’s brilliant colorless (D-E white) along with an array of canary yellows, pink and blue colors.

Lab created diamonds, sometimes called cultured or synthetic diamonds, are grown using a seed of a real diamond. There are a couple of different processes used in making lab created diamonds: High-Pressure, High-Temperature (HPHT) process or Chemical Vapor Deposition (CVD). In both processes, carbon is introduced as the catalyst for building layer upon layer over the seed diamond. Lab created diamonds can take three months to create whereas nature's diamonds take millions of years to form. Russian Brilliants® are created engaging the same High Pressure High Temperature (HPHT) technique used to produce lab created diamonds and are hand cut, faceted and polished to have the same eye appeal as a natural diamond.

There are a few challenges scientists face in crafting lab created diamonds. One is scientists have no control over the crystallization process. After the growing process is completed we find many lab created diamonds  have an uneven or blackish color. Also, lab created diamonds are only available in fairly small sizes, especially when compared to Russian Brilliants® which can be hand cut to any size specification.

White diamonds are difficult to create in the laboratory because they require an environment that is completely free of nitrogen. Not only is this difficult to set up, but it makes the growing process much longer, reducing the number of stones that can be grown. Currently, manufacturing white / colorless lab created diamonds cost more than the price tag to mine and transport natural diamonds. And certainly both are substantially more expensive than Russian Brilliants®, which offer the look of gem-quality diamonds at a fraction of the price.