GEMOLOGICAL TESTINGAND IDENTIFICATIONIt is essential that the role of the diffused Be incorundum be understood before any identificationtechniques, whether simple or complex, are proposed. The foregoing provides that foundation. Theexperiments described below were conducted tocharacterize Be diffusion–treated ruby and sapphire,and to provide possible identification criteria.Materials and MethodsSamples. The number of samples (898) examinedfor the gemological identification portion of thisstudy is necessarily quite large, to examine asmany of the effects of the Be-diffusion process as