X-ray photoemission spectroscopy of the core levels of polymeric sulfurnitride(SN)x

We have studied the binding energies of sulfur and nitrogen atoms in polysulfurnitride ${\left(\mathrm{SN}\right)}_x$ crystalline samples using x-ray photoemission spectroscopy. The effective charge transfer from sulfur to nitrogen in ${\left(\mathrm{SN}\right)}_x$ is found to be about 0.5 electrons. Shake-up structure on the core-level lines is assigned to collective excitations of the electrons (plasmons).