Ultrafast pump-probe microscopy is a promising new ultrafast approach. I will discuss my lab's recent efforts to implement ultrafast time-resolved pump-probe diffuse reflectance microscopy-spectroscopy in different modalities for photochemical and photophysical analysis of energy conversion materials and bioinspired optoelectronic materials. Our research aims to show transient absorption microscopy, a sub-class of pump-probe microscopy, enables the localization of the photochemical and photophysical processes in complex systems, offering femtosecond time resolution and sub-micrometer spatial resolution. Integration and developing image-spectra analyses platforms will be discussed. Ultrafast diffuse reflectance spectroscopy is of great value for in-situ and in-operando time-resolved analysis of complex photophysical processes in scattering or highly light-absorbing environments.

Sustainable and low-cost solution-processed semiconductor materials with tunable bandgaps are widely desired for applications in energy conversion devices, energy storage, optoelectronics, and bio-opto-electronics. Our lab is involved in synthesizing and characterizing sustainable nanomaterial platforms with enhanced optical and optoelectronic characteristics for solar energy conversion and bio-optoelectronics. Photophysical processes, such as charge carrier photogeneration, recombination dynamics, the role of various defects, and their influence on the charge carrier lifetime, control such devices' performance. A spectroscopic/optoelectronic characterization approach that can identify such processes in devices with high accuracy is indispensable.