this post was submitted on 09 Dec 2024
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Futurology
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Will never happen until De beers exits the stage or is forced to.
We already have incredibly easy to make and cheap diamonds that can rival and surpass any natural sized ones.
They do not sell nearly as well because De beers has convinced everyone natural diamonds are a scarce resource, while they have a monopoly on the supply, of which there is no actual scarcity.
What's the biggest synthetic diamond we've made so far? Has anyone made diamond spectacles or windows?
They're quite brittle, so probably not a window like you're thinking.
https://www.thorlabs.com/newgrouppage9.cfm?objectgroup_id=15962
10mm diameter for just over £1000.
Ah, so still not quite Cullinan-scale yet. Optical quality is probably better though.
I'm surprised diamonds aren't used more for lenses. Given its high index of refraction, it seems like an ideal material.
Yeah, the optical quality seems to be the main point. I assume there's few fields where that level of precision is worth it though. I doubt we're about to see it on an iPhone any time soon.