Atomic structure-colour relationship in natural diamonds

Colour is a physical attribute that can be very difficult to characterise in diamond and consequently it receives regular attention from scientists working in the gem industry. In this work we compare natural brown (the most common colour) and colourless type IIa diamonds containing only trace quantities (<1 at. ppm) of nitrogen. Numerous attempts have been made to trace the origin of brown tints in natural diamond, with the most likely culprits, i.e. dislocations and nitrogen impurities, ruled out through the application of various analytical techniques. Consequently more emphasis has recently been placed on the study of smaller defects in the diamond structure and their influence on colour. The focus of this research work is the analysis of vacancy defects having a size of the order of 1nm using aberration corrected scanning transmission electron microscopy (AC-STEM). The small electron probe size and depth of focus afforded by this technique allows such defect structures together with their position to be resolved far more readily than with conventional HR-TEM. Small-scale contrast variations are apparent in the lattice images of brown and not of colourless diamonds. These features have been compared to simulated phase contrast images of vacancy clusters in diamond. In addition, both experimental and simulated defocus series indicate that such features are not restricted to the surface of the specimen. © 2010 IOP Publishing Ltd.