Mikhail Belkin

Prof. Mikhail Belkin is a Professor of Semiconductor Technology at the Technical University of Munich (TUM), holding a chair in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering and Walter Schottky Institute. He leads research in mid-infrared (mid-IR) and terahertz (THz) photonics, focusing on compact solid-state systems using semiconductor technologies. His work aims to replace bulky optical setups with integrated photonics and quantum cascade lasers.

Belkin earned his PhD in Physics from UC Berkeley (2004) and completed postdoctoral research at Harvard University. He joined TUM in 2019 after serving on the faculty at the University of Texas at Austin. His academic career spans over two decades, with notable contributions to optoelectronics and nonlinear optics.

Research Interests:

• Mid-IR and THz quantum cascade lasers
• Integrated photonics platforms
• Nonlinear optical metasurfaces
• Electrical tuning of polaritonic systems

Awards:

• Fellow of SPIE (2018)
• Fellow of OSA (2016)
• Wilhelm Bessel Research Award (2015)
• NSF CAREER Award (2012)

Key Contributions: Belkin’s group pioneered electrically tunable polaritonic metasurfaces for ultrafast optical switching and developed homogeneous photonic integration of mid-IR lasers. His work includes breakthroughs in THz difference-frequency generation and low-loss InP waveguides.