THE ART AND SCIENCE OF DIAMOND FLUORESCENCE: WHAT IT TELLS US ABOUT THE GROWTH HISTORY OF NATURAL AND SYNTHETIC GEM DIAMONDS

Gem diamonds are highly valued for their color, or the absence of it. However, the myriad of colors and patterns that are revealed when a diamond is exposed to ultraviolet light are often more impressive than the stones themselves. High energy (i.e., ultra-shortwave <230 nm) UV light from the DiamondView instrument excites fluorescence from natural and synthetic diamonds that not only provides a tremendous amount of information about defect incorporation during growth, but also stunningly artistic designs. Fluorescence patterns reveal details about the original morphology of a diamond even after all of the natural surfaces are removed. In addition, concentrations of luminescent centers along structurally controlled planes in a natural diamond lattice provide information about the original distribution of impurities and other defects and the thermal and deformational history of diamonds as they spend millions (or billions) of years in the Earth’s mantle and then are rapidly erupted in a kimberlite magma. Likewise, the distribution of nitrogen, boron, and nickel-related luminescence in synthetic diamonds give clues to the temperature, pressure, and catalytic conditions under which they were grown in a laboratory. Evaluation of the fluorescence patterns from diamonds helps the scientist better understand the incorporation and migration of atomic level defects in the diamond structure while allowing the artist to appreciate some of the most unusual and amazing patterns that nature produces.