Amorphous Diamond

Published on 20/12/11

An amorphous diamond – one that lacks the crystalline structure of diamond, but is every bit as hard – has been created by a Stanford-led team of researchers.

But what good is an amorphous diamond?

"Sometimes amorphous forms of a material can have advantages over crystalline forms," said Yu Lin, a Stanford graduate student involved in the research.

The biggest drawback with using diamond for purposes other than jewelry is that even though it is the hardest material known, its crystalline structure contains planes of weakness. Those planes are what allow diamond cutters to cleave all the facets that help give a diamond its dazzle – they are actually breaking the gem along weak planes, not cutting it.