Crystalline disorder in thin films plays an important role in determin
ing their properties. Disorder in the crystal structure of MoS2 films
prepared by magnetron sputtering and pulsed laser deposition was evalu
ated with the use of Raman spectroscopy. The peak positions and bandwi
dths of the first-order Raman bands, in the region 100 to 500 cm-1, we
re used as a measure of crystalline order. In addition, a low-frequenc
y feature was observed at 223 cm-1 that is not part of the normal firs
t-order spectrum of a fully crystalline specimen. Data presented here
demonstrate that this band is characteristic of crystalline disorder,
and its intensity depends on the annealing history of the film. This b
ehavior seems to be analogous to the disorder found in graphite thin f
ilms.