The Infrared Space Observatory (ISO) Short-Wavelength Spectrometer (SWS01) plays an important role in studying properties of S stars. We reduce and analyze the SWS01 spectra of 17 S stars, and identify the candidate carriers of molecular absorption features. The ISO Spectral Analysis Package (ISAP) developed by the LWS and SWS Instrument Teams and Data Centers is used to process and analyze the SWS01 spectra of 17 S stars. The ISO archives of 17 S stars are obtained from the ISO database. Of 17 S stars, two stars are extrinsic S stars, the others are intrinsic S stars. The 15 intrinsic S stars can be divided into three groups (6 stars for Group I, 7 stars for Group II, and 2 stars for Group III) according to their Infrared Astronomical Satellite (IRAS) low-resolution spectra (LRS) and dust mass-loss rateṀ dust , whereṀ dust increases from Group I to II and III gradually. 17 S stars show the following properties: 1. two extrinsic S stars and 15 intrinsic S stars among different groups have different infrared properties; 2. two extrinsic S stars and 6 intrinsic S stars in Group I have similar ISO SWS01 spectra and their continua can be approximately described by a single blackbody representing the stellar photosphere, while some intrinsic S stars in Group I have 60 µm infrared excess; 3. for intrinsic S stars in Groups I, II, and III, their continua peak shifts toward longer wavelength from Groups I to II to III; 4. S stars in Groups II and III show obvious dust emission features in which the ∼10 µm dust features seem to display two different shapes. Moreover, two S stars (IRAS 00192-2020 & IRAS 15492+4837) present the 13 µm feature; 5. molecules H 2 O, CO, and CO 2 greatly affect the ISO SWS01 spectra of S stars. It is noted that the absorption features of molecules CS and HCN usually thought to exist only in C stars may appear in the S stars.

This is the second paper in a series aiming at searching for infrared pumping lines for galactic 1612 MHz OH masers. Our paper I is devoted to the 34.6 µm absorption lines in ISO SWS spectra towards a large sample of galactic OH/IR sources. This paper analyzes the 53.3 µm line in the ISO LWS spectra towards a similar sample of OH/IR sources. A search with position radius of 1 arcmin in ISO Data Archive (IDA) results in 137 LWS spectra covering 53.3 µm associated with 47 galactic OH/IR sources and 4 ones associated with megamasers Arp 220 and NGC 253. (These two magamasers are included for comparison purpose only.) Ten of these galactic OH/IR sources are found to show and another 5 ones tentatively show the 53.3 µm absorption while another 7 sources (our group U1 and U2 sources) highly probably do not show this line. The source class is found to be correlated with the type of spectral profile: red supergiants (RSGs) and AGB stars tend to show strong blue-shifted filling emission in their 53.3 µm absorption line profiles while H II regions tend to show a weak red-shifted filling emission in the line profile. GC sources and megamasers mainly show symmetrical profile in the line core while megamasers tend to show an additional absorption tail on the blue side of the line profile. It is argued that the filling emission might be the manifestation of an unresolved half emission half absorption profile of the 53.3 µm doublet which might be produced by the transitions among the two levels: 2 Π 1/2 (J = 3/2) and 2 Π 1/2 (J = 5/2) and their closely related levels. The 53.3 to 34.6 µm equivalent width (EW) ratio is close to unity for RSGs but much larger than unity for GC sources and megamasers while H II regions only show the 53.3 µm line. The pump rate defined as maser to IR photon flux ratio is approximately 5% for RSGs. The pump rates of GC sources are three order of magnitude smaller. Both the large 53.3 to 34.6 µm EW ratio and the small pump rate of the GC OH masers reflect that the two detected 'pumping lines' in these sources are actually of interstellar origin. The pump rate of Arp 220 is 32%-much larger than that of RSGs, which indicates that the contribution of other pumping mechanisms to this megamaser is important. A handful of non-detections of the 34.6 or 53.3 µm line or both can be explained partly by the genuinely weakness Preprint submitted to Elsevier Science of the OH masers and partly by some other mechanisms weakening the IR pumping lines, such as clumpy OH shell or limb filling emission.⋆ Based on observations with ISO, an ESA project with instruments funded by ESA Member States (especially the PI countries: France, Germany, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom) and with the participation of ISAS and NASA.

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