Polycrystalline CuInS2 samples are an ideal system for photoemission electron microscope studies. The polycrystalline grains have a diameter of approximately 5 mum and the system is expected to be highly inhomogeneous because of the existence of many sub-phases. We used a recently established procedure to reproducibly obtain stoichiometric CuInS2-surfaces and follow the changes in the morphology, the elemental inhomogeneous distribution, and the development of the electronic structure upon its preparation. We find that the individual grains trend to coagulate, the surface composition becomes more homogeneous, and identify characteristic features of the unoccupied DOS. (C) 2003 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.