Hi all,
I was investigating a gemstone which turned out to be a color change sapphire, about 16 cts, loop clean, under the microscope and I came across some things which look like gas bubbles and curved striae. Could some of the more experienced members please confirm or repudiate whether or not they are as suspected? Thanks alot in advanced.
Yes, you are seeing curved straie. They are hard to distinguish, but are not ruler straight. The bottom picture shows them best.
The gas bubbles are as you expected. Most crystal inclusions have straight sides and often pointed terminations, although partial melting can confuse this. These are clearly bubbles.
Any time you find a loupe clean sapphire of significant size, it is most likely a synthetic and deserves careful examination!
dclark,
Thanks alot for the confirmation. What particularly convinced me was the last picture as well. Also, when first looking at the stone I assumed it was an attempt at an Alexandrite imitation which took my thoughts initially to synthetic Spinel. Of course after S.G and R.I, was certain its sapphire. Again thanks for the help
Wow! How did you shoot these pictures?
Paragon,
I have a microscope with a camera module and some software. I took the pictures with it.