Gemstone Analysis

Raman Spectroscopy in Gemstone Analysis

Raman Spectroscopy offers great advantages in the area of fake gemstone identification. In this application we record the spectrum of a small "unknown" ring, on a R-3000HR bench. The spectrum is shown below:

Next we record the spectrum of a known diamond ring. This spectrum is shown below:

The two rings visibly look identical, however, clearly they are made from different materials. Diamond shows a characteristic C-C stretch mode at 1332 cm-1, which is absent in the "unknown" ring. In fact, the "unknown" ring is made from cubic zirconia, a spectrum of which is represented below: