The technique of laser-induced gratings (LIGs) has been applied to the simultaneous determination of speed of sound and thermal diffusivity of four 1-ethyl-3-methylimidazolium ([EMIm])-based room temperature ionic liquids (RTILs)-[EMIm][N(CN)(2)], [EMIm][MeSO3], [EMIm][C(CN)(3)], and [EMIm][NTf2]-at ambient pressure (1 bar (0.1 MPa)) and temperature (28 degrees C (301 K)). Transient laser-induced gratings were created as a result of thermalization of a quasi-resonant excitation of highly lying combinational vibrational states of the RTIL molecules and electrostrictive compression of the liquid by radiation of a pulse-repetitive Q-switched Nd:YAG pump laser (1064 nm). The LIGs temporal evolution was recorded using Bragg diffraction of the radiation from a continuous-wave probe laser (532 nm). By fitting the temporal profiles of the LIG signals, the speed of sound and thermal diffusivity were determined, and the isentropic compressibility and thermal conductivity were calculated. Independently, the special experimental arrangement allowed the measurement of the damping of the laser-excited acoustic waves and the derivation of the RTIL bulk viscosity for the first time.