Prof. Christy L. Haynes is a Distinguished McKnight University Professor at the University of Minnesota, where her research group is dedicated to applying analytical and nanomaterials chemistry in the context of agriculture, ecology, and toxicology. Haynes launched her independent laboratory in the Department of Chemistry in 2005. Since then, 34 researchers have completed their PhDs in the Haynes Lab, with 10 more currently in progress. Professor Haynes is currently the Head of the University of Minnesota Department of Chemistry and an Associate Editor for Analytical Chemistry.

Detection of both viruses and bacteria is highly important for a variety of reasons from pathogen detection to therapeutic development. However, the last several years have highlighted a weakness in the field: the need for sensitive virus and bacterial detection that is simple and rapid. Surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) has the potential to fill this gap for both virus and bacteria targets. This work will demonstrate the power of both physical entrapment of virus-like particles through substrate design to localize virus analytes into SERS hotspots and the use of nonspecific linear polymers as affinity agents to facilitate polymer-enabled capture of bacteria for SERS detection. Quantitative detection of viruses is achieved down to 101 genetic copies per milliliter, and pathogenic bacteria, as well as their metabolites, can be detected and identified even in complex matrices. Overall, this work shows great promise for the further exploration of label-free virus and bacteria detection involving thoughtful substrate design and unconventional affinity agents.

Andrew P. Carpenter, Ph.D. is a product specialist at Oxford Instruments, where he supports customers using Andor cameras and spectrographs for advanced spectroscopy applications. Before joining Oxford Instruments, Andrew spent more than a decade developing and applying linear and nonlinear vibrational spectroscopy techniques to study a wide range of materials and interfaces, including multiphase systems, environmental and biological interfaces, and bioengineered coatings.

Once largely limited to charge-coupled device (CCD) arrays, Raman spectroscopy now benefits from a diverse detector landscape that includes CCD, electron-multiplying CCD (EMCCD), scientific CMOS (sCMOS), intensified CCD and sCMOS, and InGaAs-based cameras. Each detector architecture offers distinct advantages and trade-offs in sensitivity, spectral range, speed, noise performance, and suitability for challenging measurement conditions. This presentation provides a broad survey of contemporary detector technologies for Raman spectroscopy, clarifying their operating principles, performance considerations, and practical areas of application. Topics will include fluorescence suppression using intensified detection, detector selection for near-infrared Raman measurements, optimization of camera settings, and guidance for matching detector capabilities to experimental requirements.

Thomas Beechem is an Associate Professor in Purdue University’s School of Mechanical Engineering, with a courtesy appointment in the School of Materials Engineering. His research uses optical spectroscopy, nanoscale thermal measurements, and physical modeling to identify the material mechanisms governing semiconductor-device behavior and reliability. His group’s work spans Raman and infrared spectroscopy, nanoscale energy transport, infrared nanophotonics, ferroelectric materials, two-dimensional electronics, wide-bandgap semiconductors, and heterogeneous integration.

Before joining Purdue in 2021, Beechem spent twelve years as a scientist at Sandia National Laboratories, where he advanced methods in infrared nanophotonics, thermal metrology, and semiconductor materials characterization. At Purdue, he has established spectroscopy-driven research programs that connect local measurements of defects, strain, interfaces, and energy transport to the electrical and thermomechanical behavior of devices.

Beechem is a Fellow of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers. He has served as an associate editor for the ASME Journal of Heat Transfer and the Journal of Applied Physics. His recognitions at Purdue include the Robert W. Fox Outstanding Instructor Award and the College of Engineering Faculty Excellence Award in Early Career Research.

The electronics enterprise remains defined by a familiar imperative: do more, do it faster, and do it within a smaller footprint. Big data, artificial intelligence, and cloud computing all depend on continued advances in hardware to sustain this trajectory. Yet limits rooted in both fundamental physics and long-standing computing architectures make future gains increasingly difficult to achieve through incremental improvement alone. Realizing the next generation of hardware will require more revolutionary approaches, including new materials, new packages, and new methods to assess their performance, reliability, and failure.

Motivated by this need, this talk will describe how Raman spectroscopy, together with complementary photoluminescence measurements, can be used to characterize semiconductor processing, stress, and reliability for applications ranging from frontier logic to packaging. First, Raman and photoluminescence spectroscopy will be used to examine how seed-layer engineering alters the disorder, charge state, and resulting performance of two-dimensional transition-metal dichalcogenide transistors. Second, spatially resolved Raman measurements of stress in silicon will reveal the mechanisms governing the thermomechanical response of scaled through-silicon vias used in 3D heterogeneously integrated packages. Finally, in operando optical measurements of ferroelectric AlBN capacitors will be shown to identify the formation of nitrogen-vacancy defects during electrical cycling and connect their emergence to device fatigue.

Taken together, these results illustrate how Raman spectroscopy can move beyond material identification to provide the mechanistic feedback needed to accelerate the development of emerging semiconductor materials, processes, and devices.

Wei Liu Ph.D. is an application scientist at Oxford Instruments. He has been working in the field of Raman spectroscopy and SPM techniques for over 15 years. Wei obtained his Ph.D. in Physics from University of California, Riverside, then he worked as research associate at University of Alabama, Birmingham before joining Oxford Instruments.

Raman spectroscopy has been widely used in the recent development of semiconductor, energy storage and quantum materials, high speed and high resolution confocal Raman imaging provides extremely valuable material information. Newly developed witec 360 with Hexalight spectrometer brings a few spectroscopic technologies into one integrated solution, including but not limited to Raman, PL and SHG imaging capabilities, which enables a comprehensive, non‑destructive characterization workflow for material studies. In this presentation, system configuration will be introduced and a number of applications will be discussed to show case these capabilities.

Dr. Chirayu Kothari is a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, where he earned his PhD in 2026. His doctoral research applied Raman imaging to study building materials, particularly cementitious systems. His current research combines Raman imaging and cement chemistry to investigate the mechanisms governing the performance of next-generation cements.

Raman spectroscopy has been widely used in the recent development of semiconductor, energy storage and quantum materials, high speed and high resolution confocal Raman imaging provides extremely valuable material information. Newly developed witec 360 with Hexalight spectrometer brings a few spectroscopic technologies into one integrated solution, including but not limited to Raman, PL and SHG imaging capabilities, which enables a comprehensive, non‑destructive characterization workflow for material studies. In this presentation, system configuration will be introduced and a number of applications will be discussed to show case these capabilities.