Research in optical physics covers a wide range of activities related to photons and their interaction with various materials. Experimental and theoretical research is ongoing to provide innovative solutions to today’s problems in both fundamental and application. The goals are the development of novel nanoelectronic and nanophotonic devices, creative solutions for homeland security, renewable energies, biological and biomedical investigations, solar harvesting, and smart lighting. Research includes photonic crystals, plasmonics, photonic nanostructures, light emitting diodes, terahertz photonics, spectroscopy, imaging, chemical and biological sensing and identification, ultrafast and nonlinear phenomena, the development of novel ultrafast spectroscopic techniques, development of novel optical materials including wideband gap and narrow band gap semiconductors, nanowires and their arrays, semiconducting quantum dots and quantum wells. One such research effort aims to understand the fundamental interactions between single quantum emitters and plasmonic nano-antennas. By studying the changes in the single molecule emission properties through super-resolution imaging, we can learn about the interactions of the fluorophore with its environment at the nanometer scale. Major facilities include ultrafast lasers and ultrafast and terahertz spectroscopy systems, a micro and nanofabrication clean room for semiconductor processing, linear and nonlinear optical absorption, luminescence, and super-resolution microscopy.