Chapter 5: Phenomena in Gems

5.1 Reflection of Light, Laws of Reflection

Lustre, Sheen, Aventurescence, Chatoyancy, Asterism

5.2 Refraction of Light, Laws of Refraction

Refractive index, Velocity of light, Metamerism

5.3 Diffraction of light, Interference of wavelengths

Play of colour, Opalescence, Irridescence, Labradorescence

5.4 Critical angle, Total internal reflection,

Brilliance or Life in Diamond

5.5 Dispersion, Dispersive power

Fire in Diamond

5.6 Double refraction, Ordinary Extraordinary rays

Polarised light, isotropic, anisotropic, optic axes, optic nature

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5.1 Reflection of Light, Laws of Reflection
When a ray of light is incident on the surface of gemstone it changes
its direction and returns back to the observer depending on the nature
of the surface, this property of light is called Reflection of Light. If
the reflecting surface is very smooth, the reflection of light that occurs
is called specular or regular reflection.
The laws of reflection are as follows:
1. The incident ray, the reflected ray and the normal to the
reflection surface at the point of the incidence lie in the same
plane.
2. The angle which the incident ray makes with the normal is equal
to the angle which the reflected ray makes to the same normal.
3. The reflected ray and the incident ray are on the opposite sides
of the normal.

Phenomena dependent on the Reflection of Light

• 1. Lustre is the reflection of light from the surface of a
gemstone. It is described as the quality and quantity of light
reflected from the surface of a gem.
The quantity of light reflected is given in percentage, it is said
that metal reflects 19% of total light falling on it whereas
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 diamond reflects about 17% of light incident on it, other gems
like ruby, topaz etc reflect still less about 10%. The quality of
lustre is described in the following terms: adamantine,
vitreous, pearly, silky, waxy, resinous, dull and metallic.

There is an inherent, potential lustre possible for each species

and variety of gemstone. The actual lustre, on any individual
gem may vary. The skill level of the lapidary or the polish done
on faceting, the presence of inclusions, or various chemical or
physical changes, such as oxidation or abrasion, wear and tear of
surface can affect the surface and thereby its lustre.

Adamantine Vitreous Pearly Silky

Waxy Resinous Dull Metallic

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2. Sheen is the Reflection of Light from the layer below the surface
of a gemstone.

Surface

Layer below
surface

When the reflection of light appears to be like a floating light, a cloud

like glow from a layer below the surface then the effect is called
Adularescence. It is generally observed in moonstone, it was earlier
called adularia and hence the effect adularescence. The light observed
is sometimes called “schiller”.

In moonstone, adularescence is due to a layered effect, where thin

inner layers of two types of feldspar intermix, sodium feldspar and
potassium feldspar. These layers scatter light either equally in all
spectral regions producing a white schiller, or as in the most valuable
specimens, preferentially in blue colour or the blue and orange
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colours. As in so many cases of optical phenomena the size or
distance from layer to layer influences the colours that are seen
3. Aventurescence is the reflection of light from particles or
crystalline inclusions below the surface.

The aventurescence is most prominently observed in quartz where in

fuchsite mica flakes reflect like tiny mirrors creating a spangled
effect, and green coloured material is called Aventurine quartz. There
are also haematite flakes in feldspar (sunstone) which also shows
aventurescence. The man-made glass called “gold stone” shows the
aventurescence effect, due to the copper flakes present in it. It has
been a popular imitation gem since Victorian times.

4. Chatoyancy
It is the reflection of light from one set of needles below the surface.
When such a stone is cut in a cabochon cut it displays a moving streak
of light which appears like the eye of a cat- hence the term cat’s eye
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or chatoyancy ( French word chat=cat). There are various gemstones
which show the cat’s eye effect. The highly valued cat’s eye is the
chrysoberyl family member cymophane. The streak of light is always
at right angle to the direction of the needles. A sharp and thin streak
of light is the most favoured and commands a high price.

5. Asterism is the star effect observed when light is reflected from two
or three sets of needles or growth tubes. As in the case of chatoyancy
this effect is observed if the gem is fashioned into a cabochon cut.
Each set of needles reflects light giving rise to asterisk type of
appearance. If there are 3 set of needles a 6ray star is observed and if
there are 2 sets of needles then a four ray star is observed.

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5.2 Refraction of Light, Laws of Refraction
Refraction is the bending of a ray of light when it enters a medium
where its speed (velocity) is different. The refraction of light when it
passes from a fast medium (also called rare medium) like air to a slow
medium (also called dense medium) like a gemstone it bends the light
ray toward the normal to the boundary between the two media.

AIR

GEM

Refraction can be seen when looking into a bowl of water. Air has a
refractive index of about 1.0003, and water has a refractive index of
about 1.3330. If a person looks at a straight object, such as a pencil or
straw, which is placed at a slant, partially in the water, the object
appears to bend at the water's surface. This is due to the bending of
light rays as they move from the water to the air. Once the rays reach
the eye, the eye traces them back as straight lines (lines of sight). The
lines of sight (shown as dashed lines) intersect at a higher position
than where the actual rays originated.
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This causes the pencil to appear higher and the water to appear
shallower than it really is. The depth that the water appears to be
when viewed from above is known as the apparent depth.
The refractive index or index of refraction is the ratio of two
velocities, one of them is when light is passing through air/vacuum
and the other when light is passing through a substance(velocity
means speed in a particular direction)
. Refractive Index is a characteristic property of a gem,
It is denoted by the formula:

Where c is the velocity of light in vacuum/air and v is the velocity of

light through the substance. In gemmology the substance would be a
gem. Since R.I. is a comparison of two velocities there is no unit of
measure for R.I., it is just a number.

R.I. = velocity of light in air/ velocity of light in a gem

Velocity of light in air=300,000 Km per sec
R.I. = 300,000 Km per sec/ velocity of light in a gem

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For example, the refractive index of water is 1.33, meaning that light
travels 1.33 times faster in a vacuum/air than it does in water. The
refractive index of diamond is 2.418 meaning that light travels
2.418 times faster in a vacuum/air than it does in diamond.
It would be very difficult to measure the exact velocity of light
through a small gemstone. For this reason Snell’s law of Refraction is
useful to determine the refractive index.
Like there are laws of reflection, there exists Laws of Refraction
known as the Snell’s Law. According to Snell’s law, the ratio of the
refractive indices is equal to the ratio of the sine function of the angle
of incidence to the sine function of the angle of refraction.

Refractive index of air=n1 Refractive index of gem=n2

Angle of incidence= Ɵ1
Angle of refraction= Ɵ2

R.I. of Air = Sine of angle of incidence

R.I. of Gem Sine of angle of refraction

Since R.I. of air is 1, the above formula becomes:

1 = Sine of angle of incidence

R.I. of Gem Sine of angle of refraction

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Metamerism is a phenomenon observed in coloured gemstones. It is
the change of body colour of a gem under different external light
sources.
Example: Alexandrite gem appears green in daylight or sunlight but
appears red under tungsten yellow light. This effect of colour change
ids called metamerism.

Alexandrite under daylight/sunlight under yellow tungsten light

5.3 Diffraction of light, Interference of wavelengths

Diffraction is Reflection and Refraction of light from an uneven
transparent surface. Diffraction gives rise to slight bending of light as
it passes around the edge of an object. The amount of bending
depends on the relative size of the wavelength of light to the size of
the opening. If the opening is much larger than the light's wavelength,
the bending will be almost unnoticeable.
After rain showers one often sees oil in puddles of water giving rise to
rainbow colours.

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 Rainbow colours observed when oil falls on water

The rainbow colours are due to diffraction of light. The incident light
falling on the uneven surface created by two different transparent
substances gives rise to some wavelengths being reflected and some
being refracted.

Diffraction of light
Phenomena dependent on the Diffraction of Light
1. Play of Colour is the rainbow colour effect observed when light
falls on a gem like precious opal. It shows a range of strong
spectral colours.

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 Precious Opal and its structure of silica globules

Opal is an amorphous material having transparent silica globules

embedded in silica gel. If the size of the globules is uniform then
the colour is also uniformly spread out. Smaller the globules violet
and blue colours are observed larger the globules red and orange
colours are observed.

2. Opalescence is milky whiteness observed in opal along with the

rainbow colours. The white opal has silica globules of different
sizes with the result when the sum total of all the wavelengths
diffracted from the surface of a white opal adds up to seven
colours it gives rise to the milky whiteness along with some
spots of colours.

White Opal and its structure of silica globules

3. Irridescence is the rainbow colour effect observed due to

diffraction produced when light falls in cracks in gems. The two
different media air and the gem form an uneven transparent
surface an ideal situation for diffraction. Example: Iris Quartz

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 has rainbow colours in large areas due to internal cracks giving
rise to an iridescent effect.

Iris Quartz
One can also observe iridescence in cracks present in the corners
of chipped mirrors, glass panes etc.

4. Labradorescence is the rainbow colour effect observed in

feldspar due to lamellar twinning. Each twin member is oriented
differently causing uneven surface. The lamellar twinning
creates transparent uneven structures which reflect and refract
causing diffraction and thereby spectral colours.

Lamellar twinning in labradorite and labradorescence observed

Some of the labradorite can have amazing colours especially the

feldspar from Finland. The variety is then called spectrolite.

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 Spectrolite from Finland

5.4 Critical angle, Total internal reflection,

Critical Angle is that angle of incidence for which the angle of
refraction is 90deg, when the light is travelling from dense to rare
medium. As the angle of incidence is increased the angle of refraction
also increases such that for a particular angle of incidence the
emergent light ray grazes the surface between the rare and the dense
media. Further increase in the angle of incidence the ray will return
to the dense medium giving rise to Total Internal Reflection.
The angle is called critical because any slight increase or decrease
in the angle of incidence the light will be either reflected or refracted
respectively.

Emergent rays

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 Critical angle is a characteristic property of every gemstone.
The critical angle of diamond for Diamond is 24º 26’, for Quartz
it is 40º11’and for Ruby it is 34º 36.’

Refraction of light

Reflection of light

Total Internal Reflection

The cutting and faceting of a round brilliant cut diamond has

been inspired by the property of total internal reflection

17%
%

Phenomeno
n dependent
on total
internal
reflection of light is the Brilliance or Fire in diamond.
17% of the incident light on a round brilliant cut diamond gets
reflected from the surface of the polished diamond, 83% light
enters the diamond due to refraction. This light hits the pavilion
facets at an angle greater than the critical angle (24º 26’) and
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 undergoes total internal reflection many times, ultimately when all
83% emerges out along with the reflected 17%, the observer sees
100% light from a diamond. This 100% light is the brilliance or life
of a diamond. This glow of white light dazzles the observer.

Brilliance or life in a diamond Path of light in a diamond

5.5 Dispersion, Dispersive power

When white light is incident on an inclined surface like a glass prism it splits
into seven colours, violet indigo blue green yellow orange and red
(VIBGYOR). This splitting of white light is called dispersion. Dispersion
is dependent to some extent on the inclination of the surface and on the
material of surface.

Dispersion can be measured in terms of dispersive power. Every gem has a

definite dispersive power indicating to what extent the particular gem can
spread the 3000 wavelengths of the visible spectrum.
Dispersive power of diamond is 0.044 and that of cubic zirconia is 0.060.

Phenomenon dependent on Dispersion is Fire in Diamond

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 The crown facets of a diamond act as small prisms there by splitting the
white light into seven colours. This adds to the attractiveness of diamond.

Fire from the crown facets of a diamond

Therefore when a diamond is faceted properly with its ideal proportions it

can show Life and Fire from the table and the crown facets.

Life and fire in a well cut diamond

5.6 Double refraction, Ordinary Extraordinary rays

When a ray of light strikes a calcite crystal rhomb (Iceland spar
crystal) it splits into two rays this is called double refraction. The two
rays that emerge out are called ordinary ray and extraordinary ray.
Each ray is plane polarised i.e. the vibrations are parallel to a plane. If
the direction of the ordinary ray is vertical then the vibration direction
of the extraordinary ray is horizontal. Most of the gemstones show
this property of double refraction. Since two rays emerge out there are
two refractive indices for such gemstones. Whereas those gems which
show single refraction have only single refractive index.

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 Polarized light

When the vibrations of a ray are parallel to some plane, the ray is called plane
polarized light. The polaroids used in cameras and in instrument actually filters
the light and allows only those rays which are parallel to one particular
directional plane.
Transparent crystals and gemstones which do not exhibit any double refraction
generally show single refraction, where there is only one emergent ray and it is
not plane polarized. Such gems are said to be isotropic, which means speed of
light in any given direction is same therefore it is called isotropic. Those which
allow double refraction are called anisotropic.

There is a certain direction in the doubly refractive stones where both the
extraordinary and the ordinary travel together, whereby only one ray emerges
out. Such a direction is called Optic axis.
When a crystal has only one optic axis then it is called uniaxial. If there are
optic axes then the gem is called biaxial.

The difference between the refractive index of the extraordinary ray and
refractive index of the ordinary ray is called Birefringence.
R.I.E – R.I.O = Birefringence
If the difference is positive then the optic nature of the particular gem is
uniaxial positive. If the difference is negative then the optic nature of the
particular gem is uniaxial negative. This is known as the optic nature of the
gem. The optic nature of Ruby is: uniaxial negative and that of Quartz is
uniaxial positive. In the case of the biaxial gemstones also there are biaxial
positive and biaxial negative gems.

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