Technically speaking, anyone can mine diamonds. But Robert Linares and his son Bryan can GROW them. In a process known as "chemical vapor deposition", the Linareses spray heated carbon gas over diamond chips. Under extreme pressure, the carbon atoms settle on the chips and conform to the structure. Wait a week or two, open the lid, and take out a fistful of diamonds of a size and quality almost impossible to find in nature.
Put pure carbon under enough heat and pressure - say, 2,200 degrees Fahrenheit and 50,000 atmospheres - and it will crystallize into the hardest material known. Those were the conditions that first forged diamonds deep in Earth's mantle 3.3 billion years ago. Replicating that environment in a lab isn't easy, but that hasn't kept dreamers from trying. Since the mid-19th century, dozens of these modern alchemists have been injured in accidents and explosions while attempting to manufacture diamonds.
To grow single-crystal diamonds using chemical vapor deposition, you must first divine the exact combination of temperature, gas composition, and pressure - a "sweet spot" that results in the formation of a single crystal. Otherwise, innumerable small diamond crystals will rain down. Hitting on the single-crystal sweet spot is like locating a single grain of sand on the beach. There's only one combination among millions. In 1996, Linares found it.
Last June, he finally received a US patent for the process, which already is producing flawless stones. The price per carat: about $5.
By the end of 2007, Apollo aims to be producing flawless 1-inch by 1-inch diamond cubes that could drive research in areas such as neurological implants (diamonds are bio-inert), high-density holographic storage (with many times the capacity of Blu-Ray or HD-DVD), and precise, efficient optical switches in Internet routers. Within 10 years, the company plans to be growing diamond wafers the size of DVDs for use as semiconductors!
Put pure carbon under enough heat and pressure - say, 2,200 degrees Fahrenheit and 50,000 atmospheres - and it will crystallize into the hardest material known. Those were the conditions that first forged diamonds deep in Earth's mantle 3.3 billion years ago. Replicating that environment in a lab isn't easy, but that hasn't kept dreamers from trying. Since the mid-19th century, dozens of these modern alchemists have been injured in accidents and explosions while attempting to manufacture diamonds.
To grow single-crystal diamonds using chemical vapor deposition, you must first divine the exact combination of temperature, gas composition, and pressure - a "sweet spot" that results in the formation of a single crystal. Otherwise, innumerable small diamond crystals will rain down. Hitting on the single-crystal sweet spot is like locating a single grain of sand on the beach. There's only one combination among millions. In 1996, Linares found it.
Last June, he finally received a US patent for the process, which already is producing flawless stones. The price per carat: about $5.
By the end of 2007, Apollo aims to be producing flawless 1-inch by 1-inch diamond cubes that could drive research in areas such as neurological implants (diamonds are bio-inert), high-density holographic storage (with many times the capacity of Blu-Ray or HD-DVD), and precise, efficient optical switches in Internet routers. Within 10 years, the company plans to be growing diamond wafers the size of DVDs for use as semiconductors!