Thin films of antimony sulfide have been deposited from chemical baths containing antimony trichloride and sodium thiosulfate maintained at 10 degrees C. Upon annealing in nitrogen at 300 degrees C for 1 h, the films become photosensitive with photo-to dark-current ratio of two to three orders of magnitude at 2 kW m(-2) tungsten halogen radiation. The annealed films are crystalline with an X-ray diffraction pattern matching that of stibnite, Sb2S3, (JCPDS 6-0474) and show an optical bandgap of 1.78 eV. Deposition of a thin film of CuS on the antimony sulfide thin film and subsequent annealing in nitrogen at 250 degrees C for 1 h produces films with acceptable salar control characteristics : integrated visible transmittance, T-vis 15%; integrated visible reflectance, R-vis 12%; integrated infrared transmittance, T-ir, 14%; integrated infrared reflectance, R-ir 36%; and a shading coefficient of about 0.35. The X-ray diffraction patterns of the annealed Sb2S3-CuS thin films indicate the formation of a ternary compound with the structure of famatinite, Cu3SbS4.