My laboratory emphasizes the combined use of optical spectroscopy and optical imaging as a tool for materials characterization. The primary spectroscopic techniques we employ are photoluminescence, photoluminescence excitation, and molecular fluorescence. The optical techniques we use include traditional far-field microscopy, confocal microscopy, interferometry, and near-field optics. The main areas of focus are characterization of semiconductor nanostructures, characterization of photoacids in chemically active photoresist, fluorescence imaging in biomedical engineering, and instrumentation.