Single carbon fibres were 360 degrees coated with zinc oxide (ZnO) thin films by pulsed laser deposition using a Q-switched CO2 laser with a pulse duration tau approximate to 300 ns, a wavelength lambda = 10.59 mu m, a repetition frequency f(rep) = 800 Hz and a peak power P-peak = 15 kW in combination with a 3-step-deposition technique. In a first set of experiments, the deposition process was optimised by investigating the crystallinity of ZnO films on silicon and polished stainless steel substrates. Here, the influence of the substrate temperature and of the oxygen partial pressure of the background gas were characterised by scanning electron microscopy and X-ray diffraction analyses. ZnO coated carbon fibres and conductive glass sheets were used to prepare photo anodes for dye-sensitised solar cells in order to investigate their suitability for energy conversion devices. To obtain a deeper insight of the electronic behaviour at the interface between ZnO and substrate I-V measurements were performed. (C) 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.