X-ray Topography of Hydrothermally Grown Emerald Single Crystals Using Laboratory and Synchrotron Sources

Hydrothermally grown emerald crystals have been investigated by X-ray topography methods using both laboratory and Synchrotron sources. Because of the disintegration of the given nonsingular seed face (556) into smaller pyramidal faces, growth sectors have been formed. These are accompanied by growth bands consisting of the isochrones of the dopants that occur because of the fluctuating hydrodynamic conditions during the growth process. Both kinds of defects have been topographically detected and are discussed referring to their appearance on the imaged topographs.