Competition between decay and dissociation of core-excited carbonyl sulfide studied by x-ray scattering

We show evidence of dissociation during resonant inelastic soft x-ray scattering. Carbon and oxygen K-shell and sulfur L-shell resonant and nonresonant x-ray emission spectra were measured using monochromatic synchrotron radiation for excitation and ionization. After sulfur $L_{2,3}\to {\pi }^{*},$ ${\sigma }^{*}$ excitation, atomic lines are observed in the emission spectra as a consequence of competition between de-excitation and dissociation. In contrast the carbon and oxygen spectra show weaker line-shape variations and no atomic lines. The spectra are compared to results from ab initio calculations. The discussion of the dissociation paths is based on calculated potential energy surfaces and atomic transition energies.