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Winter 2006, Volume 42, Issue 4


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The Cause of Iridescence in "Rainbow" Andradite from Nara, Japan
Thomas Hainschwang and Franck Notari


“Rainbow” andradite from Nara, Japan, occurs as relatively small orangy brown crystals that show attractive iridescence in almost the entire range of the spectrum. The material is nearly pure andradite, as determined by its chemical composition and Vis-NIR and specular reflectance FTIR spectra. Microscopy revealed that two different types of lamellar structures are most likely responsible for the iridescent colors. These lamellar structures cause predominantly thin-film interference and most likely diffraction of the light. The terms interference and diffraction are explained and correlated to the structure and iridescence observed in these garnets.

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