F-35 Fighter Jet Window Sapphire Loose Calibrated Gems (F35 Gems)

F-35 Fighter Jet Window Sapphire Loose Calibrated Gems (F35 Gems)These are lab created sapphires which were grown for use as a sensor window in the F35 fighter jet but didn't meet spec. They've been faceted and are available as loose gems! Note that the calibrated cuts have a bit more size variation than usual, up to a quarter mm. Some have bubbles, some are a little tinted, and they glow blue under shortwave 222nm UV to varying amounts because of titanium contamination. This is a really cool material lab sapphire

and is particularly favored for beryl

GAGG is a lab created garnet which is increasingly used in scientific and medical equipment

CTH has excellent brilliance

This crystal in particular was grown with a custom formulation to enhance and deepen its blue color

It only has two downsides: its relatively low hardness of 6

This allows a laser to charge its crystal up to a higher energy level before suddenly releasing it all in a single powerful burst instead of shooting out in a continuous beam

Cobalt green sapphire in particular is very neat

The blue Djeva spinel was grown by the now-defunct Djeva corporation in Switzerland

If you're a faceter but not a member of the USFG yet you should join

like its more famous brother Ce:LuAG

Production is fairly scarce today and often what we can get is of very low quality

likely meant for use in lasers though we can't be 100% sure since they did sometimes grow jewelry material as well