Experimental determination of the sulfur K-shell fundamental parameters employing the holistic approach

Abstract Sulfur and its compounds are both very abundant in the environment and very important for technological applications such as batteries. X-ray spectroscopic characterizations of sulfur compounds for a quantitative determination of the present amount of sulfur often requires a good knowledge on the atomic fundamental parameters involved. These quantitatively describe the processes of photoionization and x-ray fluorescence emission, making them crucial for x-ray spectroscopy-based quantifications. By employing the recently demonstrated holistic approach, the atomic fundamental parameters of the sulfur K-shell were experimentally determined using the radiometrically calibrated instrumentation of the Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt. The transition probabilities of the main K-shell fluorescence lines, the K-shell fluorescence yield, the K-shell Auger yield, the subshell photoionization cross section and fluorescence production cross section were determined by means of photon energy dependent x-ray fluorescence and transmission measurements on a thin InS coated silicon nitride membrane. The results are also downloadable from Zenodo as plain text.