Dichroism and birefringence of natural violet diamond crystals

Investigation of the optical properties of natural violet diamonds from the Yakutian kimberlites is performed. A red shift of the absorption edge is revealed in the absorption spectra of these crystals. This shift is indicative of the presence of a high concentration of nitrogen in the diamonds studied. Along with the strong band at 0.550 {mu}m, weaker bands at 0.390, 0.456 and 0.496 {mu}m are revealed. It is shown that violet diamond crystals have birefringence and dichroism of about 10{sup -5} and 10{sup -6}, respectively. When a light beam propagates perpendicularly to colored lamellas, the dichroism is much larger and the birefringence is smaller than in the case where the beam direction is parallel to lamellas.