Sylvain Danto

Hello,

I started my postdoctoral associate position in the Pr. Y. Fink’s group at MIT, USA, in 2006. We elaborate fibers made of the combination of metal – polymer – chalcogenide glass. These fibers exhibit various functionalities in the field of optic, energy delivery or thermal detection. The core of my job consists in developing fibers with new optoelectronic or even truly electronic functionalities.

POSTDOCTORAT:
The fabrication process of light-weight, flexible and cheap multimaterial fibres has been recently demonstrated in the Photonic Band-gap Fibers and Devices Group. Complex devices, integrating insulators, conductors and amorphous semiconductors, are now designed with a large number of functionalities. Specialized in the field of chalcogenide glasses, I study and develop the in-situ crystallization of the embedded amorphous semiconductor. Our results allow us to construct active electric devices in a single multi-material fiber. As a concrete application, we designed, drawn and characterized the first single-fiber NAND logic gate within a flexible fiber, with a source-to-drain conductance controlled by an applied gate voltage.
In addition to my main project, I contribute to the Dispersion Fiber Project, Photovoltaics Fibers Project and Non-linear Fiber Project. One other part of my daily work consists in developing new glassy compositions and drawing performs into fibers.

PhD:
My PhD was conducted at the Glasses and Ceramics Laboratory in Rennes, France, and is entitled “Tellurium based glasses for optical data storage and for space application”. My PhD is divided in two distinctive sections, each one linked to an industrial project.
* BLUE-RAY project (collaboration: CEA-Leti, Grenoble / Developed systems: Ge-Sb-Te, Ag-In-Sb-Te):
The Blue-Ray project consists in optimizing phase-change materials and DVD±RW performances. Both Ge-Sb-Te and Ag-In-Sb-Te tellurium based alloys have been investigated.
* DARWIN project (collaboration: ESA, Netherlands / Developed system: Ga-Ge-Te):
The Darwin project consists in exploring exo-planets atmospheres with spectroscopic methods in order to detect H2O, O2 or CO2 traces. We focused our work on glasses having special interest for spatial applications, meaning having low phonon energy.
Bulk glasses in the Ga-Ge-Te system with very high amount of tellurium, between 70% and 80%, have been synthesized. Tests of drawing ability were conducted and an attenuation curve was obtained.

GENERAL TRAINING:
- Autonomy
- Rigour
- Creativity
- Team work

SCIENTIFIQUES TRAINING:
- Synthesis of chalcogenide glasses, fabrication of targets for sputtering, drawing of fibers
- Physico-chemical characterization: DSC, DTA, TMA, XRD, UV-Vis-IR spectroscopy, SEM

COMPLEMENTARY TRAINING:
- Management
- Intellectual property protection
- Hygiene & Security

LANGUAGES:
- French: fluent
- English: fluent
- German: beginner


Regards,

Sylvain Danto, PhD
Photonic Band-gap Fibers and Devices Group / MIT
77 Massachusetts Avenue - Cambridge, MA 02139 - USA
E-mails: sdanto@mit.edu / sylvain.danto@hotmail.fr