Research focuses on quantum dynamics and excited-state reactivity in biological and synthetic light-harvesting systems. Discovered long-lived quantum coherence in photosynthetic light-harvesting complexes (FMO, 2007). Develops 2D electronic spectroscopy techniques to probe excitonic transport, open quantum systems, and photochemical reaction dynamics on femtosecond timescales. Director NSF QuBBE; co-director Berggren Center for Quantum Biology and Medicine.
Fayer's group develops and applies ultrafast 2D infrared spectroscopy to resolve structural dynamics of water, proteins, and complex fluids on femtosecond-to-picosecond timescales, pushing the temporal resolution of vibrational spectroscopy well past what linear methods can access.
Prof. Gaynor (Chemistry, joined summer 2023) develops cutting-edge ultrafast spectroscopy at the physics-chemistry frontier. Directions: (1) Attochemistry — new ultrafast laser spectroscopies operating on attosecond to femtosecond timescales to directly measure how electron spin and orbital motion couple to molecular geometry (spin-vibronic coupling) in chiral molecules and materials of interest for energy conversion and spintronics; (2) Multidimensional nonlinear spectroscopy (2D electronic spectroscopy, 2D vibrational) to track energy and charge transfer immediately after photoexcitation; (3) Instrumentation-first approach: building novel attosecond transient absorption and correlation spectroscopy apparatus from scratch, enabling entirely new observables (e.g., electron-nuclear and spin-orbital correlations). INQUIRE faculty affiliate. Beckman Young Investigator 2025 ($600k, 4 yrs); Packard Fellow 2025 ($875k, 5 yrs).
Hibberd holds an EPSRC Ernest Rutherford Fellowship at Manchester's PSI. Research directions: (1) Ultrafast THz spectroscopy of magnetic materials — probing spin dynamics, magnon modes, and phase transitions in correlated magnetic materials with sub-ps time resolution using intense THz pulses; (2) THz-driven spintronics — using THz electric and magnetic fields to switch magnetization and induce spin currents; (3) THz generation from spintronic heterostructures — using ultrafast spin-charge conversion as a broadband THz emitter for materials characterization; (4) Quantum magnonics — studying collective spin excitations (magnons) as quantum sensors of materials order parameters. Bridges ultrafast optics and quantum sensing of magnetic phases.
Lakhwani runs the Molecular Photophysics Group and is a chief investigator in ARC Exciton Science. The group works on strong light-matter coupling in organic semiconductors: forming exciton-polaritons in microcavities, driving them toward polariton lasing and condensation with electrically injected devices, and engineering host-guest energy funnelling to lower thresholds. A second thread is chiroptical spectroscopy — circular dichroism and circularly polarised luminescence of chiral organic films — which is a polarisation-resolved measurement of a very small differential signal. 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 — polaritonic quantum matter is a distinct route to non-classical states of light at room temperature, in contrast to the cryogenic or spin-based platforms that dominate pT/sqrt(Hz)-class sensing; the differential chiroptical measurements the group performs are, methodologically, small-signal detection problems of exactly the same type.
Rao's group uses ultrafast (sub-20 fs) transient absorption and vibronic spectroscopy to study quantum-coherent energy and charge transfer processes in molecular and nanoscale semiconductor systems, most notably the quantum-coherent mechanism of singlet exciton fission, with applications to next-generation photovoltaics.
Uses single-molecule spectroscopy, optical trapping, and advanced imaging to study nanoscale systems. Directions: (1) orientation-resolved single-molecule spectroscopy using polarization-controlled excitation and detection; (2) optical trapping of individual nanoparticles and viruses to study force-dependent dynamics; (3) plasmon-enhanced single-molecule detection and imaging beyond diffraction limit; (4) ultrafast spectroscopy of nanoscale energy transfer.
Scholes uses multidimensional ultrafast and coherence spectroscopies to probe wavepacket dynamics and quantum-mechanical phenomena in photosynthetic light-harvesting complexes, cavity QED, and photo-activated chemistry, including his group's resolution of a decade-long controversy over long-lived coherent coupling in the Fenna-Matthews-Olson complex. His current work extends coherence spectroscopy to quantum information science and photobiomodulation, squarely fitting the fundamental light-physics/quantum-optics side of the filter.
Smith runs Melbourne's time-resolved fluorescence facility and specialises in the information channels most people throw away: fluorescence lifetime, anisotropy decay and its orientational content, and single-molecule photophysics, applied to organic semiconductors, energy-transfer systems and biological samples. The group builds its own confocal microspectroscopy instrumentation for time-resolved anisotropy imaging and single-molecule detection. 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 — lifetime- and orientation-resolved fluorescence is the principal orthogonal contrast mechanism to spin-based sensing, and his instrumentation is the natural correlative partner for NV-ensemble DEER/relaxometry experiments at pT/sqrt(Hz) that need an independent optical readout of the same specimen. Preferred attribute present: orientation- and lifetime-resolved methods.
Uses ultrafast multidimensional spectroscopy to study structural dynamics of biomolecules. Directions: (1) 2D IR spectroscopy of protein folding, water dynamics, and membrane systems with sub-100-fs time resolution; (2) single-molecule FRET for resolving conformational heterogeneity in proteins and nucleic acids; (3) development of ultrafast mid-IR laser sources and pulse shaping for 2D spectroscopy. Resolves dynamics inaccessible to other methods.