Baumberg directs the NanoPhotonics Centre, confining light into sub-nanometre plasmonic 'picocavities' between metal nanostructures to achieve single-molecule-sensitive SERS and study light-matter coupling at the molecular scale. Current work spans low-cost healthcare biosensors, chiral nanophotonics and quantum coherent effects in plasmonic cavities.
Crozier holds a joint Physics/Electrical Engineering chair and runs a nanophotonics laboratory spanning plasmonic and dielectric metasurfaces, on-chip optical trapping and manipulation of nanoparticles and cells, mid-infrared spectroscopy and detection with metasurface-enhanced and colloidal-nanocrystal devices, and light emission from 2D semiconductors. The unifying theme is engineering the local optical density of states to increase the signal available from a very small number of emitters or molecules. Positioned against the established body of NV-ensemble quantum sensing work — DEER, nanoscale NMR and T1 relaxometry protocols operating at pT/sqrt(Hz) field sensitivity — the plasmonic and dielectric antenna work is the same physics used to raise photon collection efficiency and hence the shot-noise floor of NV-ensemble magnetometers operating at pT/sqrt(Hz). Note: a substantial fraction of the group's output is device fabrication rather than sensitivity-limited measurement, which is a caveat against the stated preference.
De Nijs leads the Physics for Sustainable Chemistry group, studying light-matter interactions at molecular length-scales using plasmonic nanocavities, with applications spanning single-molecule SERS sensing, in-situ electrochemical monitoring, and plasmon-driven photocatalysis for green chemistry (e.g. plastics degradation).
Natrajan's group develops luminescent lanthanide complexes for chemical and biological sensing. Research directions: (1) Time-gated lanthanide luminescence sensing — long-lifetime Eu3+, Tb3+, and Yb3+ complexes with millisecond emission lifetimes for background-free sensing in cells and tissue; (2) Intracellular sensing — luminescent probes for sensing O2, pH, viscosity, and specific enzymes inside living cells with spatiotemporal resolution; (3) Chiral discrimination — circularly polarized luminescence (CPL) from Eu3+ complexes for enantioselective sensing; (4) Responsive probes — switchable lanthanide complexes as ratiometric sensors for biomedical imaging. The long-lifetime emission enables time-gating strategies analogous to quantum sensing protocols.
Yakovlev develops label-free biomedical imaging: Brillouin micro-spectroscopy of cell/tissue viscoelasticity, impulsive stimulated Brillouin scattering, SERS and coherent-Raman diagnostics, and quantum-enhanced (photon-number-resolving, sub-shot-noise) optical imaging in collaboration with Agarwal/Scully. In the broader landscape of NV-centre ensemble quantum sensing (DEER, nano-NMR, T1 relaxometry) operating near pT/sqrt(Hz) sensitivity, this work provides the biomedical, quantum-enhanced-imaging bridge for spin-sensor bio-applications.