Infrared microspectroscopy of natural Argyle pink diamond

The colour centre responsible for pink colouration in natural diamonds has not yet been identified. This paper presents optical and Infrared (IR) microspectroscopy in order to identify the degree of spatial correlation between the IR absorption peaks and the pink colouration of single-crystal natural Argyle diamond. The spatial distribution of the nitrogen B-centre (N–V–N3) is found to be anti-correlated with the pink colour. In contrast, no change is observed in any IR feature (including the B-centre) in response to driving the photochromism of natural pink diamond. We use these results to support a proposed mechanism for production of the pink colouration.