Temporal correlations among photons emitted by nanoscale light-emitters, such as quantum dots, can provide significant information about how the emitters interact with their environment. We are setting up experiments which aim to explore spectrally resolved photon correlations at short timescales (microsecond or shorter) to study these emitters. We also explore new applications for multichannel photon correlation measurements. For a recent review of the field, see ACS Photonics 9, 2891 (2022). .

Living organisms have evolved a wide variety of structures that scatter light. Their often spectacular optial properties result from both the hiererchical organization of materials, and unique properties of the materials themselves. Our work focuses on understanding the optical properties of such structures and identifying the role of specific material properties.

Biogenic photonic structures typically use deep-subwavelength particles of organic materials as building blocks. Often these materials occur in phases that difficult to realise outside the organism. This requires measuring the optical properties directly. We work on a variety of imaging techniques, which we design and tailor to determine the refractive index of the nanoparticles. We are generally interested in quantitative characterization of small objects - as small as single molecules.

We are interested in engineering materials at the subwavelength length scales to obtain a specific optical response. We develop and maintain several computational tools for this purpose. We also use numerical computation to explore light propagation in complex photonic structures, and use this insight to explain the macroscopic optical properties of such structures.