Binding effects in sulfur Kα and Kβ X-ray emission spectra

A systematic study has been carried out in order to investigate the influence of the chemical bond on the occurrence of different sulfur decays to 1s vacancy states induced by electron impact. A number of samples in different oxidation states (+4, +6, 0 and -2) were irradiated in a commercial microscope, acquiring Ka and Kb spectra for all sulfur oxidation states. Special attention has been paid to the case of emissions associated with decays corresponding to multiple ionizations. An important achievement of the present study is the high resolution obtained in the wavelength-dispersive spectra acquired with a commercial spectrometer.