A Quick History of Lab Grown Diamonds
While lab grown diamonds are just about everywhere at this point, their history is generally less well known. It might seem like they appeared out of nowhere but they have actually been around for quite a while. Here’s a quick history of lab grown diamonds, when they originated and how they’ve developed over the years.
The First Lab Grown Diamond
The first lab grown diamond was created in 1954 by General Electric. There is speculation that lab grown diamonds were created earlier but it is not confirmed until GE’s batch was made. They used the HPHT (high pressure high temperature) method that emulates the way diamonds are naturally formed in the Earth in a fraction of the time.
Lab Grown Diamonds for Manufacturing
Lab grown diamonds were originally used for industrial processes like mining, machinery manufacturing and even computer chip production. Diamonds are incredibly strong making them useful for so many purposes other than jewelry. The first lab grown diamonds weren’t “gem-quality”. It took a couple more decades to produce lab grown diamonds that were able to be used in jewelry.
First Lab Grown Diamonds in Jewelry
By the 1970s lab grown diamonds were produced in a quality that could be used for jewelry. The production process has rapidly improved. Over time, they have been able to be grown with much better clarity and color and to larger sizes. They can even be produced to be specific colors like pink, yellow, blue and more. A contributing factor to this was the development of another method of producing lab grown diamonds, the Chemical Vapor Deposition (CVD) method. Today, most lab grown diamonds are made using the CVD method. The process involves starting with a diamond seed (a tiny diamond fragment) and placing it in a controlled chamber with gases, including carbon, and very high temperatures. The gases turn into plasma which bonds with the diamond seed and creates layers of the diamond.
Where Lab Grown Diamonds are Heading
It’s hard to predict the future of lab grown diamonds but we expect production capabilities to keep improving along with the quality and quantity of lab grown diamonds available. The production process and amount of lab grown diamond facilities has drastically expanded over the last few years so we only expect the trend to continue. Only time will tell what changes and production improvements will be in the future of the lab grown diamond industry.
