Richard Haglund

Yueming Yan Graduate Student, Physics Richard Haglund Research Group Converting low-energy infrared photons into visible and ultraviolet light through nonlinear optical processes is a fascinating challenge. Traditional upconversion relies on bulk crystals that require strict phase-matching and careful alignment, but I’ve focused on metal and semiconductor nanoparticles. Read More

Congratulations to Yueming Yan, recipient of the 2025 VINSE Outstanding Student Publication Award. Yueming’s paper, published in Science Advances, reports on harmonic-induced plasmonic resonant energy transfer between metal and semiconductor nanoparticles, a discovery that pushes the boundaries of nonlinear optics at the nanoscale. This research confirms both experimentally and theoretically… Read More

Jacob “Jake” Grayson Graduate Student, Physics & Astronomy Richard Haglund Research Group My research focuses on harnessing optical phase-change materials to enable new forms of active control in nanophotonic devices. In particular, I have been working to integrate vanadium dioxide (VO₂)—a material that undergoes a dramatic, reversible metal–insulator… Read More

DISSERTATION DEFENSE Ryan Kowalski, Interdisciplinary Materials Science    *Under the supervision of Josh Caldwell and Richard Haglund  “Infrared Light at the Nanoscale: Confinement and Spectroscopy”  04.25.25 | 10:30AM | Buttrick Hall 206 | Zoom: 942 8904 4051 Passcode: 450959 Conventional optical microscopy and spectroscopy are limited by the diffraction… Read More

Congratulations to the winners of the 2024 NanoDay! jacket drawing! This marks the fifth year that attendees had the chance to win a VINSE jacket, making it a much-anticipated highlight of NanoDay!  A big round of applause for this year’s lucky winners! Megan Keech, Biomedical Engineering Matthew Galazzo, Interdisciplinary… Read More

VINSE is excited to announce that Yueming Yan is the recipient of the 2024 VINSE Best Collaborative Paper award. Yueming’s paper has contributions from two VINSE groups from different departments – the Haglund group in Physics and the Macdonald group in Chemistry.  Yueming designed a multi-layer nano composite film… Read More

Aaron Hunsaker, a 5th year Ph.D. student in Professor Haglund’s Applied Optical Physics group. I came to Vanderbilt through the Fisk-Vanderbilt Bridge Program, where I received my master’s degree in physics before transitioning to the physics Ph.D. program at Vanderbilt. My master’s research involved fabricating and characterizing a ceramic scintillator… Read More

Congratulations to Richard Haglund and Kent Hallman for their Nature Physics publication. This paper is the latest from a multi-year, multi-national (United States, Germany, Denmark, South Korea, France, United Kingdom) collaboration in which Vanderbilt’s part was the preparation and characterization (in conjunction with the Technical University-Berlin) of a… Read More

DISSERTATION DEFENSE Nathan Spear, Interdisciplinary Materials Science *under the direction of Dr. Janet Macdonald & Dr. Richard Haglund “Enhanced Plasmonic Upconversion in Coupled Metal-Semiconductor Nanoparticle Films” 12.06.22 | 11:00am CST | 132 Olin Hall A large class of nonlinear materials show enhanced harmonic generation by exciting the localized surface plasmonic… Read More

Please join in welcoming new members of the VINSE community and congratulate the VINSE faculty on recent accomplishments and promotions. WELCOME De-en Jiang  |  Megan Dernberger  |  Jamie Kuntz  |  Benjamin Schmidt FACULTY PROMOTIONS We celebrate the recent promotions of the following faculty: Endowed Chairs John T. Wilson – named Chancellor Faculty… Read More