Maiken Mikkelsen is a physicist who won the Maria Goeppert Mayer award from the American Physical Society in 2017 for her work in quantum nanophotonics.[1] She is currently the James N. and Elizabeth H. Barton Associate Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering [2] and an associate professor of physics at Duke University where she teaches ECE 891: internship and ECE 524: introduction to solid state physics.[3] Mikkelsen is credited for many advancements in optoelectronics, nanophotonics, human health and the environment. [4]
Mikkelsen's research focuses on light-matter interactions in nanophotonic structures, quantum materials, and novel multi-scale fabrication techniques. Her recent work in "Extreme Nanophotonics" aims to realize unprecedented material properties and behavior by sculpting electromagnetic fields on the molecular scale.[6]
European Physical Society Ph.D. Thesis prize, Quantum Electronics and Optics (2011)[31]
NSF ADVANCE Award, Workshop for Women in Science & Engineering (2009)
Center for Nanoscience Innovation for Defense (CNID) Graduate Fellowship (2007)
Major scientific achievements
Revealed record-high spontaneous emission rates. Elucidated the mechanisms behind large Purcell factors and demonstrated record-high 1,000-fold enhancement in the spontaneous emission rate of dye molecules and semiconductor quantum dots(Nature Photonics 8, 835 (2014),[32]Nature Communications 6, 7788 (2015)[33]).
Realized first ultrafast and efficient single photon source. Realized this long-sought goal by embedding single quantum dots in plasmonic cavities. Critical to quantum information and quantum optics communities, as the natural slow emission rate of single photon sources is a limiting factor for many experiments and future applications (Nano Letters 16, 270 (2016)[34]).
Demonstrated first ultrafast, spectrally-selective thermal photodetector. Utilized metasurfaces to create spectrally-selective perfect absorption enabling the use of an only 100 nm pyroelectric thermal detection layer and revealing speeds of <700 ps, an improvement of five-orders-of-magnitude over state-of-the-art. The metasurface also acts as an on-chip spectral filter promising for hyperspectral imaging(Nature Materials 19, 158 (2020)[35]).
Created novel multi-scale fabrication technique to realize large-area structural color. Utilized chemical self-assembly to achieve sub-10 nm gaps between metals to demonstrate spectrally-selective perfect absorbers. Combined with top-down large-scale patterning to realize multi-spectral pixels and ~10,000 plasmonic combinatorial colors. Promising for transformative breakthroughs of e.g. photodetectors and imaging devices (Advanced Materials 27, 8028 (2015)[36], Advanced Materials 29, 1602971 (2017)[37]).
Explained the benefit of nanogap cavities for point-of-care immunoassays. Integrated a sandwich immunoassay microarray within a plasmonic nanogap cavity resulting in a 151-fold increase in fluorescence and 14-fold improvement in the limit-of-detection for the cardiac biomarker B-type natriuretic peptide (BNP). (Nano Letters 20, 4330 (2020)[38], Advanced Materials 35, 2107986 (2023)[39]).
Publications
Her most cited publications are:
Akselrod, Gleb M.; Argyropoulos, Christos; Hoang, Thang B.; Ciracì, Cristian; Fang, Chao; Huang, Jiani; Smith, David R.; Mikkelsen, Maiken H. (2014-10-12). "Probing the mechanisms of large Purcell enhancement in plasmonic nanoantennas". Nature Photonics. 8 (11). Springer Science and Business Media LLC: 835–840. Bibcode:2014NaPho...8..835A. CiteSeerX10.1.1.708.1204. doi:10.1038/nphoton.2014.228. ISSN1749-4885. S2CID31055460. (cited 1118 times according to Google Scholar[40]
