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  • Review Article
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Ultrafast spectroscopy of liquids using extreme-ultraviolet to soft-X-ray pulses

Nature Reviews Chemistry volume 9, pages 185–199 (2025)Cite this article

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Abstract

Ultrafast X-ray spectroscopy provides access to molecular dynamics with unprecedented time resolution, element specificity and site selectivity. These unique properties are optimally suited for investigating intramolecular and intermolecular interactions of molecular species in the liquid phase. This Review summarizes experimental breakthroughs, such as water photolysis and proton transfer on femtosecond and attosecond time scales, dynamics of solvated electrons, charge-transfer processes in metal complexes, multiscale dynamics in haem proteins, proton-transfer dynamics in prebiotic systems and liquid-phase extreme-ultraviolet high-harmonic spectroscopy. An important novelty for ultrafast liquid-phase spectroscopy is the availability of high-brightness ultrafast short-wavelength sources that allowed access to the water window (from 200 eV to 550 eV) and thus to the K-edges of the key elements of organic and biological chemistry: C, N and O. Not only does this Review present experimental examples that demonstrate the unique capabilities of ultrafast short-wavelength spectroscopy in liquids, but it also highlights the broad range of spectroscopic methodologies already applied in this field.

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Fig. 1: Overview of the shortest pulses of light.
Fig. 2: Femtosecond dynamics of the photolysis of water.
Fig. 3: Attosecond dynamics of the photoionization of water.
Fig. 4: Probing ultrafast dynamics in metal complexes.
Fig. 5: Femtosecond proton transfer in urea solutions.
Fig. 6: Extreme-ultraviolet high-harmonic spectroscopy (HHS) of liquids.

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Acknowledgements

H.J.W. acknowledges funding from the European Research Council through a Starting Grant (307270-ATTOSCOPE) and a Consolidator Grant (772797-ATTOLIQ), the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF) through grants 200021_172946 and 200020_204928 and ETH Zürich. J.-P.W. acknowledges funding from the SNSF through grant 200021_204844. Both authors acknowledge funding through the NCCR-MUST, a funding instrument of the SNSF.

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  1. Laboratorium für Physikalische Chemie, ETH Zurich, Zürich, Switzerland

    Hans Jakob Wörner

  2. GAP, Université de Genève, Geneva, Switzerland

    Jean-Pierre Wolf

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Wörner, H.J., Wolf, JP. Ultrafast spectroscopy of liquids using extreme-ultraviolet to soft-X-ray pulses. Nat Rev Chem 9, 185–199 (2025). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41570-025-00692-9

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