The method of chemical bath deposition (CBD) has been successfully employed to deposit films of ZnS. ZnS is a semiconductor material with a wide direct bandgap, which is interesting for application in photovoltaic and optoelectronic devices. The CBD process typically involves decomposition of a suitable precursor in a solution, giving the chalcogenide ions for the reaction with the metal salt. The result of the CBD process preparing ZnS thin films on different substrates depends on the composition of the chemical bath influencing on the aghesion, homogeneity of the films and also the ratio of concurrent deposition rates of ZnS and ZnO. We have performed a comparative study of ZnS growth by CBD on soda lime glass, Si and GaP substrates using an acidic bath (thioacetamide and acetic acid) and a basic bath ( ammonia-thiourea) at various temperatures (in the range from 60 to 85C) and deposition times (in the range from 5 to 180 min). The thickness of the films was varied from a few nm to 100 nm. Our observations suggest a homogeneous growth mechanism in the acidic bath. The chemical and crystalline nature of thick (70-100nm) films was investigated and proved by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy and X-ray diffraction methods. The in-depth composition of the ZnS layers was studied by means of X-ray fluorescence method. The optical band-gap energy was determined to be 3.64 eV from the best fit of the spectroscopic ellipsometry measurements.

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