A technique is presented for the deposition of high quality cadmium su
lfide (CdS) thin films onto SnO2 substrates by a galvanic method. Sing
le phase films were deposited in a bath of cadmium chloride and sodium
thiosulfate at pH = 4 and temperature = 85-degrees-C at a growth rate
of 1 nm/min. In the pH range of 3 to 4, the deposition rate is sensit
ive to cadmium chloride concentration. At higher pH the deposition rat
e is very low while at lower pH mixed phase films were obtained and ho
mogeneous CdS formation occurred in the bath. The structural and optic
al properties of the CdS films are also presented and are comparable t
o films deposited by other methods. CdS/CdTe solar cells with efficien
cies over 8% were fabricated using evaporated CdTe to demonstrate the
utility of CdS films deposited by this simple technique. The galvanic
deposition technique is useful in laboratory settings with limited dep
osition hardware and limited chemical waste disposal facilities.