A laser drill hole is a tiny, surface-reaching tunnel made by a laser beam, usually toward a dark inclusion.
In more detail
It is the trace of a laser drilling treatment. GIA grades a laser-drilled stone and discloses the treatment.
On a grading report
Listed first in GIA's key to symbols and drawn in red and green together; Comments describes the treatment.
Related terms
- Laser drilling: Laser drilling is a clarity treatment that bores a tiny channel to an inclusion, usually a dark one. The laser then burns the inclusion away, or a bleaching agent enters through the channel.
- Internal laser drilling: Internal laser drilling is laser work inside a diamond that creates or widens a surface-reaching feather around a dark inclusion. The feather lets a bleach in to make the inclusion less visible.
- Key to symbols: The key to symbols is the list beside the clarity plot. It names the kinds of clarity characteristic on that plot.
- Comments: Comments is the report section for identifying characteristics or features that have no other line on the report. It is also where the lab describes a treatment that it detected.