Characterization of Commercial Corundum and Beryl: A Raman Spectroscopic Insight

In order to enhance the beauty of commercially available corundum (of different colours) and beryl (mainly emerald), these are often subjected to treatments, both permanent (heat treatment, irradiation etc.) as well as temporary (glass filling and filling with temporary dyes). The objective of this paper is to use the spectrum obtained from 785 nm wavelength lasers of Raman spectroscopy to study these temporary treatments and enhancements (glass filling and filling with temporary dyes) in commercial gemstones in contrast to their natural untreated counterparts. The results of these studies show that the two groups of stones, though apparently identical in appearance, have distinctive signature features when observed under microscope and also gives definitive Raman signatures that separates the enhanced ones from the natural untreated ones.