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Nathaniel "Nate" Kinsey, Ph.D.

Associate Professor; Eugene Kranz Professorship for Research Excellence
Electrical and Computer Engineering Department

Courses Taught

ECE 3140 Electromagnetic Fields, ECE 4140 Electromagnetic Waves, ECE 5421 Electromagnetic Properties of Materials, ECE 6141 Nonlinear Optics, ECE 6142 Nanophotonics

Education

Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering; University of Missouri Columbia, 2011
Master of Science in Electrical Engineering; University of Missouri Columbia, 2012
Doctor of Philosophy in Electrical engineering; Purdue University West Lafayette, 2016

Research Interests

Nonlinear optics, nanophotonics, quantum optics, integrated photonics, optical materials

Labs and Facilities

Ultrafast Laser Lab
  • Ti:Sapphire laser, 60 fs pulses tunable from 285nm - 12,000nm multiple beamlines
  • Custom nonlinear optical material characterization setups including Beam Deflection, Pump-Probe, I-scan, and Z-scan
  • Helios and Helios-IR transient absorption spectrometers
  • Metricon prism coupler
  • Custom integrated photonics measurement system

Publications and Media Placements

45+ journal articles, 6+ patent applications, 150+ conference contributions. 16 published works with >100 citations. 5 web of science highly cited papers.


A. Ball, R. Secondo, D. Fomra, J. Wu, S. Saha, A. Agrawal, H. Lezec, and N. Kinsey “A Space-Time Knife-Edge in Epsilon-Near-Zero Films for Ultrafast Pulse Characterization”, Laser and Photonics Reviews, vol. 19, no. 5, 2025.

D. Fomra, A. Ball, S. Saha, J. Wu, Md. Sojib, A. Agrawal, H. J. Lezec, and N. Kinsey “Nonlinear Optics at Epsilon-Near-Zero: From origins to new materials” Applied Physics Reviews, vol. 11, no. 1, 2024. [Invited]

N. Vermeulen, D. Espinosa, A. Ball, J. Ballato, P. Boucaud, G. Boudebs, P. Dragic, A. Gomes, M. Huttunen, N. Kinsey, R. Mildren, D. Neshev, L. Padilha, M. Pu, R. Secondo, E. Tokunaga, D. Turchinovich, C. Veras, J. Yan, K. Yvind, K. Dolgaleva, E. W. Van Stryland, “Post-2000 Nonlinear Optics Materials and Measurements: Data Tables and Best Practices,” Journal of Physics: Photonics, vol. 5, no. 3, 2023.

J. Khurgin, M. Clerici, and N. Kinsey, “Fast and Slow Nonlinearities in ENZ Materials,” Laser and Photonics Reviews, vol. 2000291, 2020.

J. Khurgin M. Clerici, V. Bruno, L. Caspani, C. DeVault, J. Kim, A. Shaltout, A. Boltasseva, V. M. Shalaev, M. Ferrera, D. Faccio, and N. Kinsey, “Adiabatic frequency shifting in epsilon-near-zero materials: the role of group velocity,” Optica, vol. 7, no. 2, 2020.

R. Secondo, J. Khurgin, and N. Kinsey, “Absorptive Loss and band non-parabolicity as a physical origin of large nonlinearity in epsilon-near-zero materials,” Optical Materials Express, vol. 10, no. 7, 2020.

N. Kinsey, C. DeVault, V. M. Shalaev, and A. Boltasseva, “Near-Zero-Index Materials for Photonics,” Nature Reviews Materials, vol. 4, pp. 742-760, 2019. [Invited]

C. Haffner, D. Chelladurai, Y. Fedoryshyn, A. Josten, B. Bauerle, W. Heni, T. Watanabe, T. Cui, B. Cheng, S. Saha, D. L. Elder, L. R. Dalton, A. Boltasseva, V. M. Shalaev, N. Kinsey, and J. Leuthold, “Low loss plasmonic ring modulators,” Nature, vol. 556, no. 7702, 2018.

M. Clerici, N. Kinsey, C. DeVault, J. Kim, E. Carnemolla, L. Caspani. A. Shaltout, D. Faccio, V. M. Shalaev, A. Boltasseva, and M. Ferrera, “Controlling hybrid nonlinearities in transparent conducting oxides via two-colour excitation,” Nature Communications, vol. 8, no. 15829, 2017.

C. Zhang, N. Kinsey, L. Chen, C. Ji, V.M. Shalaev, A. Boltasseva, and L. Jay Guo, “High‐performance doped silver films: overcoming fundamental material limits for nanophotonic applications,” Advanced Materials., vol. 29, no. 19, 2017.

L. Caspani, R. P. M. Kaipurath, M. Clerici, M. Ferrera, T. Roger, A. Di Falco, J. Kim, N. Kinsey, V.M. Shalaev, A. Boltasseva. D. Faccio, “Enhanced Nonlinear Refractive Index in Epsilon-Near-Zero Materials,” Physical Review Letters, vol. 116, no. 233901, 2016.

N. Kinsey, C. DeVault, J. Kim, M. Ferrera, V.M. Shalaev, and A. Boltasseva, “Epsilon-Near-Zero Al-doped ZnO for Ultrafast Switching at Telecom Wavelengths,” Optica, vol. 2, no. 7, 2015. (Journal Cover)
 
Simulation tools:
D. Ososanya, R. Mueller, E. T. Scheuermann, E. Oppong, A. Ball, and N. Kinsey “Nonlinear Optics Info Table (NLOINFO)” 2025. (DOI: 10.21981/N2B5-ZF55)

A. Ball, R. Secondo, J. Khurgin, and N. Kinsey "Nonlinear ENZ Calculator." (DOI: 10.21981/1WXP-YC21).

Honors and Awards

  • Career Award – SLU Office of the Vice President for Research, 2026
  • Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE) - Air Force Office of Scientific Research (2018 Nomination Class), 2025
  • MizzouRAH! Recent Alumni Honors Recipient, 2024
  • Office of Naval Research Summer Faculty Fellowship Program Recipient, 2023
  • College of Engineering Foundation Endowed Professorship, 2021
  • SPIE Community Champion, 2020
  • Air Force Office of Scientific Research Young Investigator Program, 2017

Professional Organizations and Associations

  • Senior Member of Optica
  • Senior Member of SPIE
  • Member of IEEE
  • Member of MRS
  • Member of Sigma Chi