Herger visits high tech crystal growth firm here

GROWING CRYSTALS: Gisele Maxwell, center, explains how a laser super-heats a rod of seed material that crystallizes upon cooling into a single fiber ideal for use in many technologies including micro-projectors built into a cellular phone or used in a large screen TV. Flanking Maxwell are U.S. Congressman Wally Herger, left, and lab technician Dylan Dalton, 30.

Taking a welcome President's Day District Work break from the 111th Congress as well as the snow and cold rain blanketing Washington, D.C., at this time of year, U.S. Congressman Wally Herger spent the better part of Thursday afternoon, Feb. 18, touring a high tech facility in Anderson.

Herger and two California 2nd Congressional District staff members were guests of Gisele Maxwell of Cottonwood, president and chief executive officer of Shasta Crystals, Inc., and Kevin McCarthy, her executive vice president.

Last June, Shasta Crystals received a $100,000 grant from the National Science Foundation to develop a manufacturing process prototype for growing high quality nonlinear optical crystals at low cost for laser light source applications in miniature projectors.

At Maxwell's request, Herger and his staff wrote letters of support in 2009 to the National Science Foundation urging that the grant be awarded, McCarthy said.

With the grant as seed money, Maxwell and her team were able to convince a group of venture capitalists to provide additional funding for the five-year-old startup company, he explained further.

Maxwell obtained a doctoral degree in physics from the University of Lyon II in her native France and then moved 12 years ago to Palo Alto to do some post-doctoral work at Stanford University. She developed several proprietary techniques while working for Crystal Technology, Inc., She has patented one invention, published more than 19 articles in peer- reviewed journals, authored two book chapters and given 23 presentations at various conferences on non-linear optical materials, according to company information posted on-line.

Shasta Crystals is seeking a second grant of $500,000 from the National Science Foundation that McCarthy said will help the company develop a full-scale prototype manufacturing and testing of up to 100,000 crystals per year.

That will, in turn, entice additional venture capital investing to bring the company into full manufacturing mode of up to 1 million crystals per year, McCarthy said Monday, Feb. 22, in a follow-up interview.