Gregory Hartland

Prof. Hartland’s research centers on optical studies of the properties of nanomaterials. The properties of current interest include hot-electron effects and plasmon-exciton coupling for metal nanostructures, exciton motion in quantum materials, and the acoustic vibrations of different types of metal and semiconductor nanoparticles. A significant part of this research involves the development of new optical techniques, recent examples include transient absorption microscopy, infra-red photo-thermal heterodyne imaging, and back-focal plane imaging of plasmons in metal nanostructures. The experiments in the Hartland group provide new information about how materials interact with their environment, and an important example for the Notre Dame Biophysics program is the use of the acoustic vibrations of nanomaterials to interrogate viscoelastic effects in complex liquids.

Publications

1. "Nanoparticle-Fluid Interactions at Ultra-High Acoustic Vibration Frequencies Studied by Femtosecond Time- Resolved Microscopy” Yu, K.; Yang,, Y.; Wang, J.; Hartland, G.V.; Wang, G.P. ACS Nano, 15 (1), 1833-1840 (2021).
2. “Compressible Viscoelasticity of Cell Membranes Determined by Gigahertz-Frequency Acoustic Vibrations” Yu, K.; Jiang, Y,; Chen, Y.; Hu, X.; Chang, J.; Hartland, G.V.; Wang, G.P. Photoacoustics, 30, 100494, (2023). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pacs.2023.100494.
3. “Vibrational Anharmonicity and Energy Relaxation in Nanoscale Acoustic Resonators” Wright, C.; Hartland, G.V. Nano Letters, 23 (23), 11161-11166 (2023).
4. “Energy Transfer and Radiation Damping in Gold–MAPbI₃ Heterostructures” Ghosh, B.; Shingote, A.; Bhandari, J.; Hartland, G.V. Chemical Science, 16, 23012-23018 (2025).