The Gemesis process mimics a diamond's development some hundred miles underground. Apollo Diamond, based near Boston, takes a different tack, imitating the way diamonds are made in space. Through chemical vapor deposition, Apollo's process pumps gas into a chamber that essentially rains carbon and forms a diamond nugget from a "seed" within two to four weeks.
For now, most cultivated diamonds come in colors, the natural counterparts of which are rare in nature and pricey in stores. Gemesis specializes in yellow diamonds that get their tint from a boost in nitrogen. Gemesis' Lux estimates the potential market for yellow diamonds alone to be in the tens of millions of dollars. He hopes to create more colorful and larger gems over the next five years.
Apollo Diamond produces colorless stones from a quarter carat to a half carat in size. The company spent the better part of a decade refining a method that already created the kind of thin diamond film that gives scalpels and industrial tools a stiff coating.
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