Interpretation of the auger electron spectra (AES) of sulfide minerals

Abstract

Auger electron spectra (AES) of sulfides are interpreted using published photoelectron spectra, sulfurK _β X-ray emission spectra (XES) and Multiple ScatteringX _α calculations on metal-sulfide molecular clusters and using newly measured spectra for ZnS, Cu₂S and MoS₂. For compounds without appreciable metald-sulfur 3p interactions, only one sulfur LVV peak or a closely spaced doublet is observed. For those with substantial metald-sulfur 3p interactions additional peaks occur, with peaks at lower electron kinetic energy arising from ejection of electrons from orbitals more tightly bound than theS3p, and those with higher kinetic energy arising from electrons in less tightly bound orbitals. Thus, for many sulfide minerals, the sulfur LVV Auger Spectrum is essentially a self-convolution of the valence band density of states weighted by the amount of S3p character, and can be predicted from a knowledge of the sulfurK _β X-ray emission spectra and the X-ray photoelectron spectra.