When molecular excitations take place in local optical fields, unique opportunities arise for molecular spectroscopy, for the manipulation of chemical reactions, and for the characterization of complex biological systems. Our research combines modern developments in spectroscopy, nanotechnology, and chemistry with the overall objective of laying groundwork for sensitive optical characterization. We integrate enhancement and high lateral resolution in vibrational spectroscopic experiments and combine different microspectroscopy and imaging approaches. Our research includes 

• surface enhanced Raman scattering of complex samples
• multimodal microspectroscopy with a focus on bioanalysis and biophysics
• basic aspects of surface enhanced hyper Raman scattering
• plasmonic catalysis