The field of multidimensional laser spectroscopy comprises a variety of highly developed state-of-the-art methods, which exhibit broad prospects for applications in several areas of natural, material, and even medical sciences. This collection summarizes the main achievements from this area and gives basic introductory insight into what is currently possible with such methods. In the present introductory contribution, we briefly outline the general concept behind multidimensional laser spectroscopy, for instance by highlighting the often-employed analogy between multidimensional laser spectroscopy and NMR methods. Our initial introduction is followed by an overview of the most important and widely used multidimensional spectroscopies’ classification. Special emphasis is placed on how the contributing spectral region defines a natural way of grouping the techniques in terms of their information content. On this basis, we introduce the most important graphical ways in which multidimensional data is generally visualized. This is done by comparing specifically temporal and spectra axes that make up each single multidimensional data plot. Several central experimental methods that are common to the various techniques reviewed in this collection are addressed in the perspective of recent developments and their impact on the field. These methods include, for example, heterodyne/homodyne detection, fast scanning, spatial light modulation, and sparse sampling methods. Importantly, we address the central and fundamental questions where multidimensional ultrafast spectroscopy can be used to help understanding chemical dynamics and intermolecular interactions. Finally, we briefly pinpoint what we believe are the main open questions and what will be the future directions for technical developments and promotion of scientific understanding that multidimensional spectroscopy can provide for chemistry, physics, and life sciences.

多维激光光谱学领域包括各种高度发展的最新方法，这些方法在自然，材料甚至医学的多个领域中都有广阔的应用前景。该集合总结了该领域的主要成就，并对使用这种方法当前可能产生的情况提供了基本的介绍性见解。在当前的介绍性贡献中，我们简要概述了多维激光光谱学背后的一般概念，例如，突出显示了多维激光光谱学与NMR方法之间经常使用的类比。在我们的初始介绍之后，概述了最重要且使用最广泛的多维光谱仪的分类。特别强调的是，有贡献的频谱区域如何定义根据技术的信息内容对技术进行分组的自然方式。在此基础上，我们介绍了通常可视化多维数据的最重要的图形方式。这是通过比较构成每个单个多维数据图的时间轴和光谱轴来完成的。从最近的发展及其对本领域的影响的角度出发，探讨了本系列中所审查的各种技术共有的几种主要实验方法。这些方法包括，例如，外差/ homodyne检测，快速扫描，空间光调制和稀疏采样方法。重要的，我们解决了多维和超快光谱可用于帮助理解化学动力学和分子间相互作用的中心和基本问题。最后，我们简要指出我们认为是主要的开放性问题，以及多维技术可以为化学，物理学和生命科学提供技术发展和促进科学理解的未来方向。