The largest carved sapphire is a multi-coloured (blue, gold, grey) polished rock that weighs 80,500 carats (16.1 kg, 35.49 lb). The sapphire was displayed during the annual Unifour Gem & Mineral & Jewellery Show at the Hickory Metro Convention, North Carolina, USA on March 19, 2005.
Sapphire
Sapphire is a gemstone variety of the mineral corundum, an aluminium oxide (α-Al2O3), when it is a color other than red, in which case the gem would instead be a ruby. Trace amounts of other elements such as iron, titanium, or chromium can give corundum blue, yellow, pink, purple, orange, or greenish color. Pink-orange sapphires are also called padparadscha.
Because it is a gemstone, sapphire is commonly worn as jewelry. Sapphire can be found naturally, or manufactured in large crystal boules. Because of its remarkable hardness, sapphire is used in many applications, including infrared optical components, watch crystals, high-durability windows, and wafers for the deposition of thin films of various semiconductors.
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