Carnegie and its inventors awarded new patent for diamond work
Washington, D.C. -- The Carnegie Institution announced today that the United States Patent Office has recently granted a patent for the work of three inventors–Russell Hemley, Ho-kwang Mao, and Chih-Shiue Yan–related to the manufacture of a hard, single-crystal diamond. The patent, No. 7,115,241--"Ultrahard diamonds and method of making thereof," is one of a series that have been, or will shortly be, granted in the United States and elsewhere for inventions that relate to production using a Microwave Plasma Chemical Vapor Deposition (MPCVD). These series of inventions have led to the production of diamonds of increased hardness and enhanced optical characteristics when compared to other methods and processes for producing synthetic diamonds.
The three inventors work at Carnegie's Geophysical Laboratory and are members of a high-pressure research team. They and their colleagues subject matter to intense pressures and temperatures and have discovered previously unknown fundamental properties and structures of matter, while creating entirely new substances along the way. Their work has shed light on the conditions in planetary interiors and has advanced materials science.
