Not all diamonds come out of the ground and symbolize wedding engagements. UAB Physics Professor and University Scholar Yogesh Vohra and students from the School of Natural Sciences and Mathematics are doing some very novel and interesting things with diamonds, including making their own.

Vohra and his students create synthetic diamonds at UAB through a process called, microwave plasma chemical vapor deposition. The material produced is man-made, but has all the characteristics of a natural diamond, including being very hard and stable under extreme heat and pressure.

Because they are hard and smooth, nanostructured diamond-coated materials are being studies at UAB for use in medical implants under National Institutes of Health funding. It is hoped these harder implants will be more resilient to wear and not produce tiny particles of debris other implant materials create.

Another application of synthetic diamonds is in high-pressure research. Both graduate and undergraduate students from the school will travel with Vohra to research rare earth materials with the diamonds and X-ray defraction at the prestigious Argonne National Laboratory. The materials are studied under intense heat and pressure approximating the center of the earth. Diamonds are used because they are tolerant of these conditions.

Undergraduate students participate in the Argonne study through the National Science Foundation’s Research Experiences for Undergraduates program at UAB and a grant from the Department of Energy.