What Photothermal Spectroscopy does

Photothermal Spectroscopy Corp. (PSC), founded in 2018 in Santa Barbara, California, develops and sells Optical Photothermal Infrared (O-PTIR) spectroscopy and microscopy instruments that deliver sub-micron (sub-500 nm) infrared spatial resolution — approximately 30 times finer than conventional FTIR microscopy — overcoming long-standing limitations of traditional FTIR including poor spatial resolution, time-consuming sample preparation, and scattering artifacts. The company serves academic research institutions, synchrotron facilities, pharmaceutical and biopharma laboratories, semiconductor manufacturers, microplastics researchers, and materials science labs, with named users including Lund University, Yale University, Boston University, SOLEIL Synchrotron, and Singapore Synchrotron Light Source.

PSC's product portfolio is anchored by the mIRage modular microscope family (mIRage, mIRage-HSi, mIRage-LS for multimodal IR+Raman+Fluorescence, and mIRage-IR for reflection-mode FTIR-class use cases), augmented by Widefield O-PTIR for video-rate fluorescence-enhanced IR imaging at up to 4 FPS, the stRAMos Photothermal Stimulated Raman Microscope (PT-SRS) delivering sub-300 nm Raman resolution, the FeatureFindIR automated particle analysis software, and PTIR Studio for data acquisition and processing. The technology combines pulsed tunable mid-IR quantum cascade laser illumination with visible probe detection, supports co-located and simultaneous IR, Raman, and widefield fluorescence microscopy, and produces spectra compatible with existing FTIR/ATR libraries, enabling drop-in adoption. PSC's intellectual property estate exceeds 42 issued patents across the US, China, and Japan.

PSC operates a direct enterprise sales motion supplemented by a global distribution network, with company-owned regional offices in Mülheim an der Ruhr, Germany (Photothermal Spectroscopy Corp. GmbH, Managing Director Dr. Miriam Unger) and Nanjing, China, supporting EMEA and Asia-Pacific respectively. Revenue is generated primarily through high-ASP hardware sales of scientific instruments with quote-based pricing and multi-year sales cycles. The company was co-founded by former Anasys Instruments leadership, including CEO Roshan Shetty and CTO Craig Prater (140+ publications, 10,000+ citations, 2023 Williams-Wright Award), and is advised by Prof. Ji-Xin Cheng (Boston University, O-PTIR co-inventor) and Dr. Curtis Marcott (former P&G, Williams-Wright Award recipient). PSC remains privately held, has received a $283,000 CHIPS Act SBIR Phase I grant with Phase II eligibility up to $1.91M, and shows no institutional venture financing in disclosed sources.

Name

Photothermal Spectroscopy

Legal name

Photothermal Spectroscopy Corp.

Website

https://photothermal.com

Company type

Private

Founded year

2018

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Short description

Photothermal Spectroscopy Corp. (founded 2018, Santa Barbara) designs and sells sub-micron Optical Photothermal Infrared (O-PTIR) and Photothermal Stimulated Raman (PT-SRS) microscopes, serving academic, pharmaceutical, semiconductor, microplastics, and materials science laboratories worldwide with a global direct and distributor sales network.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Scientific Spectroscopy Instrumentation

NAICS

Analytical Laboratory Instrument Manufacturing (334516)

SIC

Laboratory Analytical Instruments (3826)

akta.pro primary industry

Mass Spectrometry & Spectroscopy Instruments (HLAGAIAB)

akta.pro secondary industry

Material Characterization & Spectroscopy (NMR/FTIR/MS) (HLAGADAK)

Keywords

• Infrared spectroscopy instruments
• Photothermal microscopy systems
• Raman spectroscopy equipment
• Submicron chemical imaging
• Vibrational spectroscopy tools

Headquarters

HQ city

Santa Barbara

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices3 records

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Hardware or Manufacturing

Cost components

Technology or R&D, Personnel, Operations, Marketing or Sales, Supply Chain, Infrastructure

Revenue model

1. Scientific Instrumentation Sales: Sale of high-value microscopy and spectroscopy instruments (mIRage, stRAMos product families) to academic and industrial research laboratories. Instruments represent significant capital investments with multi-year sales cycles typical of scientific equipment.

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels2 records

Marketing channels7 records

Core offering

Photothermal Spectroscopy Corp designs, manufactures, and sells Optical Photothermal Infrared (O-PTIR) and Photothermal Stimulated Raman Scattering (PT-SRS) microscopy and spectroscopy instruments. The mIRage product family and stRAMos microscope deliver sub-500nm IR and sub-300nm Raman spatial resolution for academic and industrial research labs in life sciences, pharmaceuticals, semiconductors, microplastics, and materials science. The instruments overcome traditional FTIR limitations by combining sub-micron resolution with simultaneous co-located Raman and fluorescence imaging in non-contact reflection mode.

Product overview

Photothermal Spectroscopy Corp offers the mIRage product family based on proprietary Optical Photothermal Infrared (O-PTIR) technology, which provides submicron IR spectroscopy and imaging that overcomes traditional FTIR limitations. The portfolio includes: mIRage (modular core platform), mIRage-HSi (laser-scanning high-speed variant), mIRage-IR (reflection-mode for FTIR-class applications), mIRage-LS (multimodal with simultaneous Raman and fluorescence), and Widefield O-PTIR (high-speed fluorescence-enhanced imaging). The stRAMos product delivers Photothermal Stimulated Raman Scattering (PT-SRS) with sub-300nm resolution. Supporting software includes featurefindIR for automated particle analysis and PTIR Studio for data management. The products share O-PTIR technology foundations while targeting different applications from life sciences to semiconductors.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• mIRage: Product family platform for submicron IR spectroscopy and imaging, including mIRage-LS, mIRage-HSi, and mIRage-IR variants.
• stRAMos
• FeatureFindIR
• Widefield O-PTIR

Products and services

• stRAMos Photothermal Stimulated Raman Microscope providing sub-300nm spatial resolution using PhotoThermalSRS technology, with 10x sensitivity improvement over conventional SRS and ultrafast hyperspectral imaging capabilities. Targets researchers requiring high-sensitivity Raman chemical imaging at sub-micron scales.
• mIRage-HSi Laser scanning O-PTIR microscope delivering sub-500nm IR imaging with hyperspectral imaging in minutes and single-wavelength images in seconds. Features co-located fluorescence and Raman spectroscopy in a non-contact, reflection-mode format. Designed for researchers needing high-speed sub-micron IR imaging.
• mIRage Modular microscope platform delivering high-performance submicron IR spectroscopy and imaging with broad application flexibility. Serves as the foundational platform for the mIRage product family with options for different configurations.
• mIRage-IR Reflection-mode O-PTIR microscope designed for researchers considering FTIR or QCL-IR systems, delivering FTIR-like spectra with superior submicron spatial resolution in non-contact reflection mode. Targets users replacing or supplementing traditional FTIR microscopes.
• mIRage-LS Sub-500nm multimodal IR+Raman+FL imaging system combining infrared spectroscopy with simultaneous Raman and co-located widefield fluorescence imaging for life science research and multiuser vibrational spectroscopy applications.
• Widefield O-PTIR High-speed fluorescence-based infrared multimodal microscopy system with up to 4 FPS imaging speeds, providing sub-500nm IR resolution using Fluorescence-IR (FL-OPTIR) technique for high-speed chemical imaging.
• featurefindIR Automated tool that detects, measures, and chemically identifies particles ranging from submicron to millimeter scale, streamlining analysis of microplastics, pharmaceutical powders, and failure analysis samples.
• PTIR Studio Software platform for O-PTIR data acquisition, processing, and analysis.

Quantifiable outcome

• 30x finer spatial resolution than conventional IR (sub-500nm vs 10-20μm)
• +4 more outcomes

Named customers10 records

Segments5 records

Ideal customer profiles5 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Feature6 records

Scale indicators3 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights8 records

Direct peers

• Bruker: Bruker acquired Anasys Instruments — the company Photothermal Spectroscopy's founders previously led — and now sells the ICON-IR / nanoIR AFM-IR product line that competes head-to-head with PSC's mIRage O-PTIR platform in sub-micron IR spectroscopy for life sciences, polymers, and semiconductor failure analysis.
• Renishaw: Renishaw is the dominant supplier of confocal Raman microscopes (inVia) directly competing with PSC's stRAMos and mIRage-LS in research Raman imaging. Its scale, installed base, and stream-line/stream-hr platforms make it the primary comparability anchor in the Raman microscopy segment PSC just entered.
• HORIBA Scientific: HORIBA manufactures lab Raman, FTIR, and fluorescence microscopy instruments (LabRAM, XploRA, Duetta) sold into the same academic and industrial research customers as PSC. Direct overlap on multimodal optical spectroscopy and on the life-sciences and materials-science use cases.
• Carl Zeiss Microscopy: ZEISS supplies high-end optical and confocal microscopy platforms (LSM, Elyra) used in the same life-sciences and materials-science core facilities that buy O-PTIR. PSC's simultaneous IR+Raman+Fluorescence workflow is benchmarked against ZEISS-class correlative microscopy offerings.
• Leica Microsystems: Leica (Danaher) sells STELLARIS and confocal microscope platforms that bundle visible-light fluorescence and Raman modalities for the same life-science customers, competing for placement in multi-user imaging cores alongside mIRage-LS and stRAMos.
• WITec (Oxford Instruments): WITec — now part of Oxford Instruments — is a leading confocal Raman microscopy brand (alpha300) that competes directly with stRAMos in sub-micron Raman and correlative microscopy for life sciences, polymers, and microplastics research.

Broad incumbents

• Thermo Fisher Scientific: Thermo Fisher's Analytical Instruments segment (formerly Thermo Scientific) sells Nicolet FTIR microscopes and QCL-based infrared microscopes that compete with PSC's mIRage-IR in industrial QC and pharmaceutical labs, alongside a much broader analytical portfolio.
• Agilent Technologies: Agilent manufactures FTIR, Raman, and mobile molecular spectroscopy solutions and serves overlapping pharmaceutical, materials, and life-sciences research customers with Cary and ExoQuest platforms — broad incumbent competing for the same wallet share.
• Shimadzu Scientific Instruments: Shimadzu manufactures FTIR (IRTracer/IRSpirit), QCL-IR, and Raman spectrometers sold into pharmaceutical, polymer, and academic labs — broad incumbent with overlapping product categories to mIRage-IR and competing on installed base.
• Revvity (formerly PerkinElmer): Revvity (the analytical and life-sciences segment of legacy PerkinElmer) sells Frontier FTIR, Spotlight FTIR microscopy, and Raman systems into the same pharmaceutical QC and materials-research customer base that PSC targets with mIRage-IR and featurefindIR.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat5 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• YouTubeyoutube.com/channel/UCOhAJOqq9MqIixJXyhb7b0g
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/photothermalspectroscopy
• Xx.com/photothermalir

Compliance2 records

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles7 records

Subsidiaries1 record

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Photothermal Spectroscopy