The reactor
Every diamond starts as a seed.
Inside this chamber, thin slices of diamond wait on a molybdenum holder.
How lab grown CVD diamonds are grown
01 · The seed
Let's start from the beginning.
Each seed is a slice of real diamond. Its crystal lattice is the template for everything that grows on it.
02 · The gas
Hydrogen, with a breath of methane.
The sealed chamber is pumped down and filled with hydrogen and a few percent methane, a carbon-rich gas.
03 · The plasma
Microwaves light the gas.
The gas becomes a glowing plasma while the seeds sit near 1,000 °C. Methane breaks apart and frees its carbon.
04 · Atom by atom
Carbon locks into place.
Carbon atoms bond onto the seed and copy its lattice exactly: real diamond, not an imitation.
05 · Growth
Layer by layer, for weeks.
The crystal rises a few microns an hour. At its edges, non-diamond carbon forms a dark crust.
06 · Rough
Out of the reactor.
Weeks later the chamber opens on a raw crystal, still wrapped in its dark crust.
07 · Laser
Cut free.
A laser separates the new crystal from its seed and trims away the dark crust.
08 · Planning
Find the stone inside.
The rough is scanned and mapped to find the best diamond it can become.
09 · Polishing
Facet by facet.
Each facet is ground at a precise angle on a spinning wheel coated with diamond.
Grown, not mined
A diamond, start to finish.
Real diamond, grown from a seed in weeks instead of the earth in eons.