Real-time tracking of the intramolecular vibrational dynamics of liquid water
Water's polarity and hydrogen-bond network give rise to its unique chemical and biochemical behaviour. Its vibrational motions, occurring on a few-femtosecond timescale, govern ultrafast energy transfer within the hydrogen-bond network. However, direct real-time observation of these motions has remained elusive due to the extreme temporal resolution required. Here, we investigate the ground-state vibrational dynamics of liquid water initiated by a sub-5 fs near-infrared (NIR) pump pulse via Impulsive Stimulated Raman Scattering (ISRS). Using few-fs ultraviolet (UV) probe pulses transmitted through a 5 µm-thick liquid jet, we monitor the coherent vibrational wave packet dominated by the OH stretch mode, exhibiting a 10 fs oscillation period and a 25 fs damping time. These results reveal the rapid dephasing of the OH stretch mode preceding its relaxation through coupling to the bending vibrations, highlighting the importance of intermolecular couplings of liquid water in the high frequency vibrational dynamics.
Authors
- Ofer Neufeld (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5477-2108)
- Emanuele Mai (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4422-954X)
- Erik P. Månsson (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3567-2985)
- Sergey Ryabchuk (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0210-9256)
- T. Scopigno (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7437-4262)
- Oliviero Cannelli (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1844-4799)
- Gaia Giovannetti
- Andrea Trabattoni (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0187-9075)
- Hugo J. B. Marroux (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4895-6581)
- Francesca Calegari (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3234-7298)
- Huiyuan Chen (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3855-4725)
- Angel Rubio
- Vincent Wanie
- Majed Chergui
- Giovanni Batignani
- Ammar Bin Wahid
Institutions
- Leibniz University Hannover (DE)
- Universität Hamburg (DE)
- Technion – Israel Institute of Technology (IL)
- Commissariat à l'Énergie Atomique et aux Énergies Alternatives (FR)
- Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron DESY (DE)
- Elettra-Sincrotrone Trieste S.C.p.A. (IT)
- CEA Paris-Saclay (FR)
- Center for Free-Electron Laser Science (DE)
- Max Planck Institute for the Structure and Dynamics of Matter (DE)
- Laboratoire Interactions, Dynamiques et Lasers (FR)
- École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (CH)
- Sapienza University of Rome (IT)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Communications Chemistry
- Published
- 2026-01-20
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1038/s42004-025-01863-x
- Primary Topic
- Spectroscopy and Quantum Chemical Studies
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 0.00
Funders
- European Commission
- Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft
- Schweizerischer Nationalfonds zur Förderung der Wissenschaftlichen Forschung