Julianna Photopoulos talks to Pascal Gallo, co-founder and chief executive of Swiss start-up company LakeDiamond, about his career in quantum physics and crystal growth
Pascal Gallo is a physicist who has had a passion for crystals and gemstones since childhood, thanks to his grandfather, a mine prospector in Africa who discovered the minerals marokite and gaudefroyite. As a youngster, Gallo would often gaze at the collection of minerals they had at home, and even trade precious stones in school. Today, he is the chief executive of Switzerland-based start-up company LakeDiamond, which manufactures ultrapure diamonds that can be harnessed for various technologies – from laser-power beaming, autonomous vehicles to rapid battery-charging and medical imaging.
Gallo’s initial interest in physics was piqued by reading Stephen Hawking’s A Brief History of Time, and by having developed a strong set of strong mathematical skills. He graduated from the National Institute of Applied Sciences (INSA) in Toulouse, France, with a Master’s degree in engineering physics and management in 2002. “This engineering school had a branch dedicated to physics, but we would also learn law, finance and economy,” he recalls.
Growing crystals
Gallo continued his studies at the INSA and earned his PhD on quantum physics and crystal growth in 2006. “My PhD focused on spin dynamics – how the spin of electrons will evolve during transport within materials. And to test those properties, we needed to grow pure semiconductors by a technique called molecular-beam epitaxy,” he says. Gallo’s research was carried out in collaboration with Albert Fert who shared the 2007 Nobel Prize for Physics for his work on spintronics. After his PhD, Gallo then spent around half a year working at the Laboratory for Analysis and Architecture of Systems, also in Toulouse, where his research involved developing new semiconductor lasers, before joining Eli Kapon’s research group at the Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) in Switzerland, later that same year, as a postdoc.
Over the next six years, Gallo worked on the interactions between light and matter in semiconductor nanostructures, at EPFL. During that time, he developed diamond-based lasers and smashed a world record for laser-energy transmission. “We developed a certain class of lasers called VCSELs [vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers], and we got a world record by putting diamonds in the cavity of those lasers,” explains Gallo. “Diamond is the best conductor of heat, so when you evacuate the heat you can increase the power without destroying your laser.”
It was shortly after this breakthrough that Gallo had the idea to launch a start-up company. He was, however, disappointed that he couldn’t find a good supply of ultrapure diamonds. “There was no reliable source and so we had two options: either drop the project or manufacture our own diamonds.” It wasn’t until 2011, when he met his business partner Theophile Mounier (LakeDiamond’s current chief financial officer), and the company NeoCoat, that together they developed both a single-crystal chemical vapour deposition reactor to grow artificial diamonds and a business plan for what would become LakeDiamond.
Starting up
Between 2012 and 2014 Gallo worked with Kapon at BeamExpress, a Swiss start-up company that made ultrafast lasers for telecommunications. Among his duties as a research engineer and operation planner was to organize, plan and set up research projects with business partners and customers. He then worked at photonics start-up company Novagan as chief business development officer, before eventually co-founding LakeDiamond in 2015.
Gallo points out that he was lucky in that Kapon, who is now LakeDiamond’s head of photonics, knew a lot about business and had previously raised large amounts of venture money. “It showed me that it was possible as a scientist to start a company.” What also helped was EPFL’s technology transfer office (TTO), especially as researchers there are encouraged to write patents. “When you found your company, you can go to the same TTO and exploit the patents that you wrote as a researcher,” Gallo says. “That’s exactly what I did with patents on the use of diamonds in lasers.”
Once Gallo and his team managed to grow diamonds in the lab – purer than natural ones – by layering carbon atoms in a crystalline pattern, he was approached by several physicists and companies that brought new ideas to LakeDiamond. Together, they are now addressing a wide range of innovative applications in micromechanics, photonics, electronics and biotechnology. “When you’re a physicist, you really understand what your product can bring and how you have to design the product to make something useful, which will be adopted by the market,” he says. At the same time, Gallo is collaborating with many of his former colleagues and professors. “It’s really important to keep a good relationship with other researchers you work with or study with as a student because you build up a network,” he says.
In 2018 LakeDiamond launched its own initial coin offering, issuing virtual “crypto tokens” that can be exchanged for diamonds or part of the turnover. “It turned out to be a very good idea,” says Gallo. “We managed to raise a substantial amount of money and to make the company grow.” The company now employs 12 people and Gallo is still involved in all the technical aspects. “I really love the idea that as a CEO who is a physicist I can go really deep into the development of all the products the company’s making. It gives credibility when we talk to investors or potential partners.”
Role variation
As LakeDiamond’s chief executive, Gallo’s job is intense but he enjoys the varied work that constantly keeps him on his toes. “I really love this aspect of the job, but it requires a lot of energy,” he says. “When I was working in the lab, I could choose the pace. Now I have to do a little bit of this, a little bit of that, and the rhythm changes all the time.”
Having coincidentally ended up in a similar career as his grandfather – although avoiding the human and environmental toll of diamond mining – Gallo believes today’s physics graduates have a wide variety of opportunities, as long as they are open-minded and flexible. “You have to choose your career path to be flexible. You can have an idea in mind of where you want to go and in which field, but the exact path that you follow will be subject to who you meet, and so you really have to stay open and meet as many people as you can.”
