What Is Synthetic Ruby

It is important to distinguish between fake rubies and synthetic rubies.

What is synthetic ruby. Synthetic rubies contain almost the exact same chemical composition and physical properties as natural rubies but are sold around the world for a fraction of the price of natural rubies. Synthetic ruby sapphire. Synthetic rubies often appear brighter and more vivid than natural rubies. So they aren t fake rubies but just man made ones.

Fake rubies are stones made of an imitation material such as glass or a non ruby mineral. A synthetic ruby on the other hand is a ruby that has been created in a lab by humans as opposed to in nature. Synthetic rubies also known as created cultured or lab grown rubies are created through an artificial process that usually involves high temperature and pressure. They were not of any value as gems however because they became opaque as they cooled.

Synthetic ruby is a ruby that comes in less expensive than real rubies and is oftentimes used to substitute natural rubies albeit a cheap substitute. Gaudin a french chemist who produced some synthetic rubies beginning in 1837. The ability to create gemstones in the laboratory began in 1902 when auguste verneuil a french chemist developed a method known as flame fusion to create synthetic ruby. Ruby lasers are still in use.

Ruby is also the birthstone that represents the month of july. The basic definition of a synthetic gem is a precious stone that s grown in a lab under the same condition that real gemstones form. The first working laser was made by theodore h. Because it was so highly prized the ruby was the first gemstone to be made artificially.

Maiman used a solid state light pumped synthetic ruby to produce red laser light at a wavelength of 694 nanometers nm. While fakes have different chemical and physical properties compared with the real thing synthetics have the same chemical composition as natural ruby and are technically real rubies. Synthetic rubies are essentially lab grown gems using advanced technology. Rods of synthetic ruby are used to make ruby lasers and masers.

Documented attempts to make rubies date to the experiments of marc a. Chemically optically and structurally a synthetic ruby is identical to natural rubies. The color is the result of combining aluminum oxide which by itself is colorless with chrome creating a mineral known a corundum or ruby. Synthetic rubies have technological uses as well as gemological ones.

It should be noted that artificially produced rubies are not the same as fake rubies which have a different chemical structure from that of natural ruby. From a chemical standpoint lab created rubies are no different from natural ones and are considered real rubies.