Yoel Fink

Associate Professor of Materials Science
MacVicar Faculty Fellow

B.Sc. Chemical Engineering, Technion - Israel Institute of Technology, 1994
B.A. Physics, Technion - Israel Institute of Technology, 1995
Ph.D. Materials Science, MIT, 2000

Room 13-5013, 77 Mass. Ave., Cambridge, MA 02139
617-258-6113 (phone) 617-452-3432 (fax)
yoel@mit.edu
Prof. Fink's Research Group's site

Professor Fink's research interests are in the theory, design, fabrication and characterization of multimaterial multifunctional fibers and fiber assemblies. These exciting new materials are composed of conductors, semiconductors, and insulators with 10's-of-nanometers feature sizes. While sharing the basic semiconductor device attributes, they are processed using conventional fiber processing approaches thus yielding kilometers of precisely controlled fiber structures with engineered electronic, optical, thermal, and acoustic properties. Prof. Fink's research has led to entirely new classes of fiber devices including: wavelength-scalable hollow-core photonic bandgap transmission fibers; high-Q Fabry Perot fiber resonators; transverse surface emitting fiber lasers; and thermal and optical fiber detectors and fiber array systems. He was a recipient of the Weizmann Institute Amos De-Shalit Foundation Scholarship in 1992, was awarded the Hershel Rich Technion Innovation Competition in 1994, was a recipient of the Technology Review Award for the 100 Top Young Innovators in 1999, and was awarded the National Academy of Sciences Initiatives in Research Award for 2004. Professor Fink is a co-founder of a startup company, OmniGuide Inc (2000), and serves on its Board of Directors. He is the coauthor of more than 40 journal articles, and holds eighteen issued U.S. patents on photonic fibers and devices.

Selected Publications:

Fink, Y., Winn J.N., Fan, S., Michel, J., Chen, C., Joannopoulos, J.D., Thomas, E.L., "A Dielectric Omnidirectional Reflector," Science 282, 1679–1682, November 1998.

Hart, S.D., Maskaly, G.R., Temelkuran, B., Prideaux, P., Joannopoulos, J.D., Fink, Y., "External Reflection from Omnidirectional Dielectric Mirror Fibers," Science 296, 510–513, April 2002.

Temelkuran, B., Hart, S.D., Benoit, G., Joannopoulos, J.D., Fink, Y., "Wavelength Scalable Optical Fibers for CO2 Laser Transmission," Nature 420, 650–653, December 2002.

Bayindir, M., Sorin, F., Hart, S., Shapira, O., Joannopoulos, J.D., Fink, Y., "Metal-Insulator-Semiconductor Optoelectronic Fibres," Nature, 431, 826–829, October 2004.

Shapira, O., Abouraddy, A.F., Joannopoulos, J.D., Fink, Y., "Complete Modal Decomposition for Optical Waveguides,"Physical Review Letters 94 , Art. No. 143902, April 2005.

Bayindir, M., Shapira, O., Saygin-Hinczewski , D., Viens, J., Abouraddy, A.F., Joannopoulos, J.D., Fink, Y., "Integrated Fibers for Self Monitored Optical Transport," Nature Materials, 4, 820–824, October 2005.

O. Shapira, K. Kuriki, N. D. Orf, A. F. Abouraddy, G. Benoit, J. F. Viens, A. Rodriguez, M. Ibanescu, J. D. Joannopoulos, Y. Fink, and M. M. Brewster, "Surface-Emitting Fiber Lasers," Opt. Express 14, 3929–3935, May 2006.

Teaching Involvements 2006–2007

Fall 2006 3.23 Electrical, Optical, Magnetic Properties of Materials
Spring 2007 3.024 EPM Properties of Materials

In July 2006, many journals and websites reported on Prof. Fink's research in optic fibers; see Tech Talk for further details. Prof. Fink's work with light conducting fibers was reported in the Feb. 2005 Technoloy Review "77 Mass Ave" section and in the Feb. 2005 Technology Insider.

Prof. Fink recently received the NAS Award for Initiatives in Research.

Technology Insider wrote about OmniGuide Communications, a company founded by Yoel Fink, John Joannopoulos, and Ned Thomas (Feb. 2004 and March 2006). "Perfect mirror" fibers are being used in cancer surgeries at Brigham and Women's Hospital, as reported by the MIT News Office. Prof. Fink's work on flexible fibers was recently reported in Nature (Oct. 14, 2004, vol. 431, p. 749); this work was also reported in Tech Talk and Technology Insider.

Tech Talk reported Prof. Fink's group's work with optical fibers (Dec. 18, 2002).