Alan Mickelson
Associate Professor
Electrical, Computer and Energy Engineering

ECEE 130

MSE Areas: Thin films, polymer processing/device fabrication, nanotechnology for optics/elecgronics, plasmonics

The research program carried out at Alan Mickelson’s Guided Wave Optics Laboratory includes the areas of plasmonics, nonlinear optical polymer development and characterization and nano processing of semiconductors (for example, silicon). The application of the research is primarily for electronic, microwave/millimeter and optical devices. The device application is generally far-sighted in the sense of new device concepts for disruptive technologies. Application areas presently include nano-scale optical communications, improved photovoltaic energy harvesting and on-chip optical signal processing. The research generally requires material development to enable novel device concepts (sub wavelength optical switching), new levels of device and/or system integration (intra-chip optical interconnections) and/or new methods of device processing (rare earth/nano-metal polymer co-doping).

Selected Publications and Accomplishments

Hongyu Zhou, Xi Chen, David Espinoza, Alan Mickelson and Dejan Filipovi\’c, Nanoscale Optical Dielectric Rod Antenna for On-chip Interconnecting Networks, IEEE Transactions on Microwave Theory and Techniques 59(10), 2624 – 2632 (October, 2011).
Description of the first of a kind polymeric, silicon nanophotonic hybrid device,

J. H. Lee, J. Xue, W. Park and A. Mickelson, “Surface Plasmon Polariton Waveguides in Nonlinear Optical Polymer”, in “Organic Thin Films for Photonics Applications” Eds. Warren Herman, Steven Flom and Stephen Foulger, 51–66 (American Chemical Society, Washington DC, 2010).
Description of the first of a kind plasmonic waveguide device fabricated in nonlinear optical polymer.

Edward M. McKenna, Andy S. Lin, Alan R. Mickelson, Raluca Dinu and Dan Jin, “Comparison of r$_{33}$ values for AJ404 Films Prepared with Parallel Plate and Corona Poling,” JOSA B24(11), 2888-2892 (November, 2007).
A part of the DARPA molecular photonics (MORPH) program – measurement agreement of the highest electrooptic coefficient in nonlinear polymer to the date of publication.