Dispersion of a mineral refers to how light is broken down into its individual wavelength components – red, orange, yellow, green, blue, violet and purple -, when it hits the surface of a gemstone. This breakdown of light into its individual wavelengths of spectrum is also referred to as the “fire” of a gemstone; the higher the dispersion, the more prominent the rainbow color display is. Diamonds have dispersion as high as 0.044 and therefore capable of displaying brilliant colors; zircons also have high dispersion (0.038) and can display brilliant colors like diamonds when refined into faceted gemstones.