Extreme Photonics with Nanogap Cavities: From Ultrafast Single Photon Sources to Biosensors

Maiken H. Mikkelsen

Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Duke University, USA

Abstract:

Nano- and quantum materials with unique optical properties hold the potential for breakthroughs in a wide range of areas from ultrafast optoelectronics and on-chip components for quantum information science to improved bio-sensing. An exciting opportunity to realize such new materials lies in controlling the local electromagnetic environment on the atomic- and molecular-scale (~1-10 nm), which enables extreme local field enhancements and drastically modified local density of states. A well-controlled platform to study the emergence of extreme photonic behavior is provided by plasmonic nanogap cavities, which consist of ultrathin dielectric gaps between metals. Here, I will provide an overview of our recent research using such structures to realize ultrafast single photon sources, high-speed thermal photodetectors with on-chip spectral filters and metasurface-enhanced biosensors.

Bio:

Maiken H. Mikkelsen is the James N. and Elizabeth H. Barton Associate Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Duke University. She received her B.S. in Physics from the University of Copenhagen in 2004, her Ph.D. in Physics from the University of California, Santa Barbara in 2009 and was a postdoctoral fellow at the University of California, Berkeley before joining Duke University in 2012. Her research explores nanophotonics and new quantum materials to enable transformative breakthroughs for optoelectronics, quantum science, the environment, and human health.

Her awards include the Maria Goeppert Mayer Award from the American Physical Society, the NSF CAREER award, the Moore Inventor Fellow award from the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, and young investigator program awards from the Office of Naval Research, the Army Research Office and the Air Force Office of Scientific Research.