Funding is requested for systematic experimental studies of pressure-induced changes of electronic, magnetic and structural properties of materials with strong electronic correlations (Mott-Hubbard systems, Kondo insulators, unconventional superconductors) at the Insulator-Metal crossover by optical spectroscopy techniques. Pressure is very important variable allowing to tune critical properties of strongly correlated materials in a controllable and reproducible experimental environment through the I-M transition from low to high temperature conditions. This project benefits from numerous inventions in diamond anvil techniques and optical spectroscopy methods developed over last few years. These include progress in Raman and synchrotron infrared instrumentation permitting studies to higher pressures in unattainable previously energy and wide temperature ranges. Recent theoretical predictions regarding the universal features of the Raman response at the I-M crossover will be tested. This includes the predicted isosbestic point in the in the temperature-dependent Raman response at the insulating side of the transition, and the depletion of low-energy response at low temperature. The experiments will focus on pressure effects on coupled lattice, magnetic and electronic degrees of freedom in strongly correlated materials in the regime close to the insulator-metal transition. At the I-M crossover the materials can not be described as Fermi-liquids (on the metal side), or as conventional insulators (on the insulator side), thus the proposed experiments will provide fundamental information on quasiparticle responses in charge and spin channels. Collapse of magnetic moments under pressure will be studied in great detail by tracing the magnetic excitations in some transition metals and their oxides. High-temperature superconductors (HTS) and other prototype materials (V 2 O 3 , FeSi, and similar classical insulators) will be examined under pressure by Raman spectroscopy in a wide pressure-temperature range on samples with different doping. This will be done to probe various elementary excitations at the I-M crossover: electronic excitations, including pseudogap and superconducting gap excitations, orbital excitations (similar to excitations in LaMnO 3), magnetic excitations and their coupling to phonons. The obtained experimental information will provide a broader impact on theoretical models and new concepts at the frontier of current research of strongly correlated materials. A synchrotron IR technique will be used to study optical properties in far-IR and mid-IR spectral ranges and to identify the free electron component and unconventional excitations. Recently developed high-throughput versatile Raman instrumentation that uses extensively holographic optics will be employed. These studies will use synthetic ultra pure diamonds, which have very low fluorescence. We will also develop a new kind of Raman instrumentation based on volume holographic gratings, and further improve our synchrotron IR facility at the NSLS. One...