Technical Knowledge

My work combines building optical instruments, fabricating devices and writing the software that runs and analyses experiments. The techniques below are ones I have used hands-on, grouped by area.

Optical instrumentation

• Design and construction of optical setups for single-molecule spectroscopy, super-resolution microscopy (STORM/SRRF), Hanbury Brown–Twiss (HBT) single-photon measurements and optical genome mapping

• Multi-laser combination (405, 488, 532, 561 and 639 nm), spatial filtering, beam expansion and alignment to the objective back focal plane

• Widefield and total internal reflection fluorescence (TIRF) excitation on a Nikon Eclipse Ti, with detection on an Andor iXon Ultra 897 back-illuminated EMCCD

Micro- and nanofabrication

• Nanoslit and microchannel devices for single-molecule DNA stretching: photolithography, reactive-ion etching (RIE), multilayer alignment and glass bonding

Single-molecule genomics

• Optical genome mapping of fluorescently labelled DNA linearised in nanoslits

• Deep-learning (U-Net) reconstruction and optical barcode read-out of single DNA molecules

Microscopy

• Super-resolution microscopy: STORM and SRRF (laser-based and non-laser illumination)

• Confocal laser scanning microscopy (CLSM) with time-resolved upgrade (Nikon + PicoQuant LSM kit): confocal imaging, fluorescence lifetime imaging microscopy (FLIM) and fluorescence correlation spectroscopy (FCS)

• Single-molecule/particle spectroscopy: intensity–time traces and blinking analysis

Photon counting and time-resolved spectroscopy

• Time-correlated single photon counting (TCSPC): Horiba DeltaFlex, PicoQuant PicoHarp

• Fluorescence lifetime and anisotropy; second-order photon correlation g⁽²⁾(τ) by HBT

Steady-state spectroscopy

• UV-Vis-NIR absorption (Shimadzu UV-2450, PerkinElmer Lambda 950)

• Fluorescence (Horiba Fluorolog-3, Agilent Cary Eclipse)

• Absolute and relative quantum yield (Fluorolog-3 with Quanta-φ integrating sphere)

• Dynamic light scattering (Malvern Zetasizer)

Software, data analysis and instrument control

• Batch-analysis tools in ImageJ macro language, MATLAB and Python: single-molecule localisation, intensity–time trace extraction and ON/OFF classification, particle tracking, super-resolution reconstruction

• Photon-counting statistics: lifetime fitting, g⁽²⁾(τ), FCS autocorrelation fitting, ON/OFF-time distributions

• Scripts and graphical user interfaces (GUIs) for controlling custom microscope components, such as motorised XYZ stages and source-measure units

• AI-assisted development: large-language-model tools to speed up scripting, debugging and the building of standalone applications

Materials synthesis

• Quantum dots of varied size, composition and structure (aqueous and hot-injection routes), carbon nanodots, gold and silica nanoparticles