In this paper, we report the effect of deposition time on the properties of zinc sulfide thin films. The ZnS thin films have been grown on amorphous glass substrates and at various deposition periods ranging from 30 to 120 min by chemical bath deposition technique. Other parameters, such as reactant concentration, solution pH, and bath temperature were kept constant for the all depositions. Morphological characterizations of the surface were studied using the atomic force microscopy (AFM). The AFM images confirmed that the grain size of ZnS increased with increased deposition time. Average diameter of nanoparticles was between 60 and 90 nm, while the roughness ranged from 6 to 11 nm. Optical properties, which were determined from UV-VIS spectrophotometry, were obtained by analyzing the measured absorbance and transmittance spectrum. The zinc sulfide thin films show high transmittance in the visible region and the ZnS band gap value was estimated to be in range of 3.99 -4.05 eV.

An aqueous solution method has been developed for synthesizing size-controlled ZnS:Co nanocrystals with a relatively narrow size distribution. The nanocrystal samples were characterized by UV-Vis absorption spectra and photoluminescence spectra. We prepared narrow size distribution particles under different synthesis conditions. The effect of manganese concentration on the photoluminescence properties was investigated. Luminescence intensity in different excitation wavelength correlates with different size of ZnS:Co nanocrystals on luminescence spectra. We found that by narrowing the size distribution and doping concentration, ZnS:Co samples can be prepared with high luminescence intensity.

ZnS nanoparticles were obtained by chemical precipitation from a solution (CPD) on porous silicon (PS) prepared by chemical etching of an n-type silicon wafer (100) with a solution of fluoride acid (HF) at room temperature. A thorough study was carried out using structural methods such as atomic force and scanning electron microscopy (AFM, SEM). The optical properties of the fabricated ZnS-PS materials were investigated and it was shown that the synthesis of nanoscaleZnS particles in silicon pores revealed new photoluminescence (PL) characteristics, such as bright and stable radiation in the visible part of the spectrum, even at room temperature.

A solar cell with glass/ITO/ZnS/Cu2ZnSnS4/CdTe/In structure has been fabricated using all-electrodeposited ZnS, Cu2ZnSnS4 and CdTe thin films. The three semiconductor layers were electrodeposited using a two-electrode system for process simplification. The incorporation of a wide bandgap amorphous ZnS as a buffer/window layer to form  ITO/ZnS/Cu2ZnSnS4/CdTe/In solar cell resulted in the formation of this 3-layer device structure. This has yielded corresponding improvement in all the solar cell parameters resulting in a conversion efficiency >12% under AM1.5 illumination conditions at room temperature.  These results demonstrate the advantages of the multi-layer device architecture over the conventional 2-layer structure.

Approximately spherical nanoparticles of the II-VI semiconductor materials Zn 1 -x Cd x S have been produced successfully by laser ablation of the bulk material in several liquids. The non-stabilized suspensions of particles are characterized by absorption spectroscopy and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). The procedure is not strongly size-selective, radii of 7 ± 3 nm were found for Zn 1 -x Cd x S by transmission electron microscopy. Acetonitrile stabilizes the particles for several days up to weeks. Prolonged irradiation leads effectively to a reduction in particles size, in which particle agglomeration may play an important role. Ablation in degassed liquids does not have a significant effect on the absorption of the suspended particles.