Last date for submission of paper: unknown; Contact person: unknown; Light-matter interactions play a critical role in probing and manipulating fundamental building blocks in the physical world, such as electrons, photons, phonons and ions. Such interactions exist in various important energy processes. In this talk I will present two examples on how to utilize light-matter interaction to characterize and manage energy materials and devices. In this first example, a nonlinear stimulated Raman scattering microscopy is deployed to probe bond vibrations in ions in electrolytes, which is three orders of magnitude faster than conventional spontaneous Raman scattering.