Diamond color
OK, so I sit down and decide to blog about one random article today before I leave. And what should I get but Diamond Color?
This is something I happen to know about, cos I used to work on it. Why do diamonds have colours? Because they have individual point defects inside which absorb and re-radiate at various different wavelengths. A defect-free diamond is perfectly transparent, but diamonds tend to acquire various types of defect depending on the conditions under which they were formed. Nitrogen is the most common defect, and it can either sit in clumps, or in pairs, or singly, this determines the overall type of the diamond.
Interestingly, it turns out somebody's already had my idea of using ion implantation to alter the colour of a diamond for jewellery purposes. Screw you, other people! So there ya go, I learned something from a wikipedia article on a subject I already know about - hooray for wikipedia. I now turn back to my regular schedule of obscure Czech towns and Irish radio transmitters.
This is something I happen to know about, cos I used to work on it. Why do diamonds have colours? Because they have individual point defects inside which absorb and re-radiate at various different wavelengths. A defect-free diamond is perfectly transparent, but diamonds tend to acquire various types of defect depending on the conditions under which they were formed. Nitrogen is the most common defect, and it can either sit in clumps, or in pairs, or singly, this determines the overall type of the diamond.
Interestingly, it turns out somebody's already had my idea of using ion implantation to alter the colour of a diamond for jewellery purposes. Screw you, other people! So there ya go, I learned something from a wikipedia article on a subject I already know about - hooray for wikipedia. I now turn back to my regular schedule of obscure Czech towns and Irish radio transmitters.