Ultrafast structural molecular dynamics investigated with 2D infrared spectroscopy methods

Ultrafast, multi-dimensional infrared (IR) spectroscopy has been advanced in recent years to a versatile analytical tool with a broad range of applications to elucidate molecular structure on ultrafast timescales, and it can be used for samples in a many different environments. Following a short and general introduction on the benefits of 2D IR spectroscopy, the first part of this chapter contains a brief discussion on basic descriptions and conceptual considerations of 2D IR spectroscopy. Outstanding classical applications of 2D IR are used afterwards to highlight the strengths and basic applicability of the method. This includes the identification of vibrational coupling in molecules, characterization of spectral diffusion dynamics, chemical exchange of chemical bond formation and breaking, as well as dynamics of intra- and intermolecular energy transfer for molecules in bulk solution and thin films. In the second part, several important, recently developed variants and new applications of 2D IR spectroscopy are introduced. These methods focus on (i) applications to molecules under two- and three-dimensional confinement, (ii) the combination of 2D IR with electrochemistry, (iii) ultrafast 2D IR in conjunction with diffraction-limited microscopy, (iv) several variants of non-equilibrium 2D IR spectroscopy such as transient 2D IR and 3D IR, and (v) extensions of the pump and probe spectral regions for multi-dimensional vibrational spectroscopy towards mixed vibrational-electronic spectroscopies. In light of these examples, the important open scientific and conceptual questions with regard to intra- and intermolecular dynamics are highlighted. Such questions can be tackled with the existing arsenal of experimental variants of 2D IR spectroscopy to promote the understanding of fundamentally new aspects in chemistry, biology and materials science. The final part of the chapter introduces several concepts of currently performed technical developments, which aim at exploiting 2D IR spectroscopy as an analytical tool. Such developments embrace the combination of 2D IR spectroscopy and plasmonic spectroscopy for ultrasensitive analytics, merging 2D IR spectroscopy with ultra-high-resolution microscopy (nanoscopy), future variants of transient 2D IR methods, or 2D IR in conjunction with microfluidics. It is expected that these techniques will allow for groundbreaking research in many new areas of natural sciences.