Alumni Guest House : Donated by Mr. Mody (Class of '55)

Chronicle took the opportunity to interview prof. Pandey (via email exchange) and to find out the background details about this historic pact.

Bio-data of Prof. Dhananjai Pandey is here.

Chronicle: Welcome Prof. Pandey.

Q-1: Please provide details of the R & D collaboration agreement between Moser Baer and IT-BHU.

This MoU is the outcome of in-depth discussions during visits by MBIL (Moser Baer India Ltd.) staff (Mr. G. R. Nyati and Dr. S. K. Mishra) to BHU and the faculty members of the School of Materials Science and Technology (my self, Dr. P. Maiti and Dr. R. Prakash) to MBIL plant in Greater Noida. The signing ceremony on 23rd May, 2006 held at the Corporate Headquarters of MBIL in Delhi was attended by Professor Panjab Singh, Vice-Chancellor, BHU, Professor S. Lele, Rector, BHU, Professor S.N. Upadhyay, Director IT, Dr. P. Maiti, Reader in the School and my self from the BHU side, and Mr. Deepak Puri, Chairman and MD, MBIL, Mr. M. Girish Baluja Operation Officer, Mr. Giriraj Nyati, Vice-President (Engg. & Technology), MBIL, Dr. P. C. Achar and Dr. S. K. Mishra of MBIL.

The MoU document was signed by Mr. Deepak Puri and Mr. Giriraj Nyati from MBIL, and Professor S. N. Upadhyay and myself from IT, BHU. This MoU is for joint research and development activity and projects related to materials for High Capacity Optical Data Storage Medium and Solar Cells. Its tenure is for five years but may be renewed further with mutual consent. About six faculty members are involved in the project.

Q-2: Why did Moser Baer select IT-BHU for collaboration?

The School of Materials Science and Technology of IT-BHU is an internationally renowned centre for materials research and education. Its faculty members have very strong R& D background in crystallography, phase transformations, dielectrics and advanced polymers, all of which are relevant to the scope of the MoU with the MBIL.

Q-3: What is the specific field or areas of research?

There are basically three different class of materials used in the present day high density CDs and DVDs: polycarbonate as the substrate material, ZnS-SiO2 and GeN/Si3N4 as dielectric materials and Ge-Sb-Te/ Ag-In-Sb-Te based alloys as the active phase change material. This MoU is for innovation in these three classes of materials through joint collaborative research. MBIL is a world leader in the mass production of CDs and DVDs of variable data storage capacities and speed, and has excellent track record of research and process development. The School of Materials Science and Technology at IT-BHU, on the other hand, has faculty members with vast experience in the fundamentals of polymers, dielectrics and phase transformations. The joining of hands of the two sides with focused objectives is an attempt to take maximum advantage of the strengths and capabilities of both the sides in finding innovative solutions to the existing challenges before the optical media industry.

Q-4: How this agreement will benefit our college?

The MoU will help the School in creating additional infrastructure for R& D activities on optical storage media materials. It will provide exposure to the industrial processes to the students of Ph.D., M. Tech. and Integrated Dual Degree Programmes. The future prospects for their absorption in the optical media storage industry will also be enhanced. The present MoU is the beginning of industrial collaboration for the School and we believe that this will encourage more companies dealing with high-tech advanced materials to come forward to interact with us in the years to come.

Q-5: Please explain CD/optical disk storage media technology

In the phase change optical disk storage media technology, recording and erasing are realized through a laser induced reversible phase change between crystalline and amorphous states of Ge-Sb-Te or Ag-In-Sb-Te alloys. A recorded bit is an amorphized mark against the crystalline background. The large reflectivity difference between the crystalline and amorphous states forms the basis of read-out mechanism. Thus the phase change recording discs possess optical read, write and direct overwrite ability without using magnetic head.

A typical CD utilizes a multilayer structure consisting of a polycarbonate substrate with nanometer size grooves, a dielectric layer, the active phase change layer, another dielectric layer, a reflective layer and a protective layer within an overall thickness of 1.2 mm. Use of blue-ray laser instead of red-ray laser, allows drastic decrease in the bit size leading to enormously high storage capacity in the HD-DVDs and Blue –Ray Discs (BDs).

Chronicle: Thank you sir.