Investigate complex physical behaviors in systems including, but not limited to, strongly correlated materials, plasmonic response, and wave propagation in 2D materials, nano-wires and carbon nanotubes, resonances in metamaterials, and other nano-structured materials and functional photonic devices.

The nearSpec scattering type scanning near-field optical microscope (s-SNOM) provides high spatial resolution (<20 nm) imaging and spectroscopy (nano-FTIR) with ultrafast pump-probe capability. It is equipped with femtosecond laser sources at near-infrared 780 nm, 1560 nm, and mid-infrared ranging from 4.7–15.3 μm (by DFG), as well as a mid-IR quantum cascade laser unit covering wavelength ranging from 7.5μm–11 μm.