Laboratory - Grown Synthetic diamonds, also referred to as "man-
made-," "lab-grown-," or "created-" diamonds, are diamonds
manufactured in a laboratory, as opposed to natural diamonds,
which form naturally within the Earth. The acute shortage of
industrial quality diamonds, mainly used in a variety of
industrial applications, has been improved in part by the advent
of synthetic diamonds. These have been manufactured by a range
of different technological processes for over half a century.
However, in recent years it has become technologically possible
to produce gem-quality synthetic diamonds of commercially
significant size and weight. At present, the annual production
of gem quality synthetic diamonds is only a few thousand carats,
whereas the total production of natural diamonds is around 120
million carats per annum. Nearly all synthetic diamonds are
fancy-colored; mostly yellow, orange, blue, and, very
occasionally, colorless to near-colorless. The IGI Laboratory
Grown Report provides the same information