Material- & Biophotonics
apl. Prof. Dr. Michael SCHMITT
Inspection of a fiber-coupled nanooptical setup.
Image: Jan-Peter Kasper (University of Jena)
apl. Prof. Michael Schmitt.
Image: Anne Günther (University of Jena)apl. Prof. Dr. Michael SCHMITT
Email: m.schmitt@uni-jena.de
Phone: +49 3641-9-48367
Apl. Prof. Michael Schmitt is a research associate at the Institute of Physical Chemistry at the Chair of Physical Chemistry II – Material- and Biophotonics. His research focuses on linear and nonlinear laser microspectroscopy for biomedical, life-science and materials applications. He serves as Assistant Editor of the Journal of Biophotonics.
Research Areas
Dr. Schmitt’s research interests are focused on linear and nonlinear laser microspectroscopy for:
- Biomedical and life-science analysis
- Characterization of interactions between small molecules and biological target molecules
- Derivation of structure-property and structure-dynamics relationships of biomolecules and functional materials
- Label-free molecular imaging and optical diagnostics
- Multimodal spectroscopic imaging
Teaching Fields
Dr. Schmitt teaches classes in:
- Fundamental physical chemistry
- Spectroscopy and imaging
- Raman spectroscopy and nonlinear optical microscopy
Research Methods
The laboratories run by Dr. Schmitt at the chair of Prof. Popp offer possibilities for linear and non-linear laser spectroscopy by utilizing the following equipment:
- Resonance Raman spectroscopy
- Non-linear multimodal imaging combining:
- Coherent anti-Stokes Raman (CARS) microscopy
- Stimulated Raman scattering (SRS) microscopy
- Second harmonic generation (SHG) imaging
- Multi-photon excited autofluorescence imaging
- Multi-photon excited fluorescence life-time imaging microscopy (FLIM)
Recent Research Results
Current research focuses on label-free molecular imaging and spectroscopy for biomedical and life-science applications. Raman-based approaches are increasingly combined with complementary imaging modalities to obtain chemical, functional and structural information from biological samples. Recent work demonstrated non-resonant Raman spectroscopy for label-free molecular profiling of the human retina in vivo [1]. Related studies combined Raman spectroscopy with optical coherence tomography to acquire complementary molecular and structural information from retinal tissue [2].
Another research direction is the analysis of molecular interactions and cellular processes using Raman-active molecular markers. Nitrile- and alkyne-containing compounds can act as intrinsic Raman tags in spectrally silent regions, enabling the localization and molecular characterization of pharmacologically relevant compounds and membrane components in living cells [3,4]. The group also develops automated multimodal imaging approaches. Recent work combined droplet microfluidics with CARS and two-photon fluorescence microscopy for automated analysis of cultured bacteria and introduced image-based control concepts for reliable high-throughput measurements [5,6].
[1] Sentosa et al., Commun. Biol. 9 (2026).
[2] Sentosa et al., Biomed. Opt. Express 16, 566 (2025).
[3] Schultz et al., Chem. Sci. 17, 1613 (2026).
[4] Schultz et al., Chem. Sci. 15, 14323 (2024).
[5] Ott et al., J. Raman Spectrosc. (2026).
[6] Ott et al., Lab Chip 25, 119 (2025).