Nanophotonics provides fine control over the spatio-temporal field profiles of light. We integrate molecules and materials with nanophotonic structures to (1) enable fundamental studies of native dynamics on surfaces and in solution with sensitivities down to the single-molecule level, and (2) manipulate electronic and nuclear motion in the regime of strong light–matter coupling. Our approach integrates concepts from nano-optics and quantum optics while developing new spectroscopic methods [1]. Recent work includes the introduction of Raman noise spectroscopy for probing molecular dynamics across multiple timescales [2].

[1] Tsao, C., Ling, H., Hinkle, A., Chen, Y., Jha, K. K., Yan, Z. L., & Utzat, H. (2025). Enhancing spectroscopy and microscopy with emerging methods in photon correlation and quantum illumination. Nature Nanotechnology, 1-16.

[2] Cobb-Bruno, C., & Utzat, H. (2025). Stochastic Equilibrium Raman Spectroscopy (STERS). arXiv preprint arXiv:2503.10762.

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