High-spatial-resolution oxygen isotopic analysis to distinguish natural from synthetic corundum

Sorokina, Elena S.; Schmitt, Axel K.; Häger, Tobias; Hopp, Jens

doi:10.5194/ejm-38-123-2026

Articles | Volume 38, issue 2

https://doi.org/10.5194/ejm-38-123-2026

© Author(s) 2026. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Collection:

Experimental mineralogy, petrology, and geochemistry

https://doi.org/10.5194/ejm-38-123-2026

© Author(s) 2026. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Articles | Volume 38, issue 2

Research article

|

18 Mar 2026

Research article |

| 18 Mar 2026

High-spatial-resolution oxygen isotopic analysis to distinguish natural from synthetic corundum

Elena S. Sorokina, Axel K. Schmitt, Tobias Häger, and Jens Hopp

Metrics will be available soon.

Latest update: 18 Mar 2026

Short summary

Natural ruby and sapphire are of the rarest gemstones. To further enable their identification from synthetic analogues, this study explores secondary ionization mass spectrometry (SIMS) oxygen isotope analysis. SIMS δ¹⁸O analysis of hydrothermal corundum yielded values between -7.84 ± 0.13 ‰ and -14.54 ± 0.13 ‰ (Vienna Standard Mean Ocean Water), which are atypical for natural corundum. SIMS δ¹⁸O analysis of corundum thus has strong potential to distinguish synthetic and natural corundum.