Many of the first attempts to produce diamonds in a laboratory resulted in diamonds with a yellow color. Consider that one nitrogen atom per several thousand carbon atoms can impart an obvious yellow color in a diamond. Then consider that nitrogen is the most abundant gas in the air of the laboratory. It was very difficult to keep the nitrogen out of the diamond growing process in the early days of lab-created diamonds.

Today, producers of lab-grown diamonds have better controls over the diamond growing process and are able to exclude nitrogen or introduce it in just the right amount to produce a predictable yellow color. Yellow lab-grown diamonds are available and are priced at a significant discount to mined yellow diamonds.