Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jun 25, 2026

Probing the Structure and Dynamics of Interfacial Water with Scanning Tunneling Microscopy and Spectroscopy
Published on: May 27, 2018
Ultrafast phase transitions in metastable water near liquid interfaces
Oliver Link1, Esteban Vöhringer-Martinez, Eugen Lugovoj
1Institut für Physikalische Chemie der Universität Göttingen, Göttingen, Germany.
Abstract:
Electron spectroscopy for chemical analysis (ESCA) is a powerful tool for the quantitative analysis of the composition and the chemical environment of molecular systems. Due to the lack of compatibility of liquids and vacuum, liquid-phase ESCA is much less well established. The chemical shift in the static ESCA approach is a particularly powerful observable quantity for probing electron orbital energies in molecules in different molecular environments. Employing high harmonics of 800 nm (40 eV), near-infrared femtosecond pulses, and liquid-water microbeams in vacuum we were able to add the dimension of time to the liquid interface ESCA technique. Tracing time-dependent chemical shifts and energies of valence electrons in liquid interfacial water in time, we have investigated the timescale and molecular signatures of laser-induced liquid-gas phase transitions on a picosecond timescale.
Related Concept Videos
Phase Transitions: Vaporization and Condensation
Phase Transitions: Melting and Freezing
Phase Transitions
Phase Transitions
Phase Diagram
Phase Diagram

