New Technique Enables Laser Engraving, Writing on Diamonds

An English company has been able to develop special devices that allow engraving on diamonds using laser light.

It is the only device that can penetrate the surface of diamonds and deal with their atoms.

This new technique will advance the industry through traceability and transparency and can improve existing methods for determining the origin of diamonds.

There are already systems in place to track the origin and movement of diamonds, from their extraction from the mine as rough diamonds, through the cutting, polishing, and manufacturing stage, to the retailer, but the tracking process requires more control mechanisms.

Last year, Human Rights Watch criticized jewelers because many were unable to identify the mines from which diamonds were extracted, as there are some diamonds that are prohibited from being traded in the markets, as a result of using illegal methods of extraction such as child labor or entering diamonds extracted in conflicts and civil wars Or what is known as blood diamonds, in addition to trading in the market types of diamonds grown in laboratories.

It is also important for diamond dealers to be able to distinguish between natural diamonds and diamonds grown in laboratories, in light of a boom in the production and improvement of the properties of cultivated diamonds, which has become complicated to differentiate between them.

However, natural diamonds are still much more expensive than lab-grown diamonds, so it's important that dealers have a reliable way to tell them apart.

This technique may give consumers a safe mechanism to verify and distinguish between natural and lab-grown diamonds, by recording data inside the diamond and does not affect the value of the diamond in any way.

Diamonds are engraved in this technique using a device the size of a large photocopier, by exposing the diamond's surface to short-range laser flashes, at a depth of about a quarter of a millimetre.

The technique also enables manufacturers to etch their trademarks into diamonds, by using laser light to make larger changes to the diamond's carbon structure.

It is likely that this laser device will have other applications as well for the development of the diamond sector during the coming period.

Contributed by Israa Farhan