Carnegie awarded new patent for diamond creation

Washington, D.C.—The U.S. Patent & Trademark Office has issued a patent to the Carnegie Institution for a method of creating high quality diamond crystals larger than 10 carats.

Patent number 7,883,684 was developed by Carnegie Geophysical Laboratory director Russell Hemley along with Ho-kwang (Dave) Mao, and Chih-shiue Yan. The process described by the patent creates colorless single-crystal diamond at rapid growth rate by chemical vapor deposition.

The production method consists of creating temperature and pressure conditions whereby single crystal diamonds can grow from carbon-bearing molecules in a hydrogen-rich gas. Variations on this method have also led to the production of diamond having enhanced hardness and toughness compared to diamond created by other methods as well as natural diamond.

This patent supplements a cluster of other Carnegie patents related to the institution’s diamond technology.

The application was filed in May 2006 and awarded on February 8, 2011

Top Image Caption: Examples of new single crystal diamonds produced by chemical vapor deposition at Carnegie. The larger one is 2.4 carats.