Cadmium-five copper indium gallium sulfur-selenide (CIGSS) thin film solar cells have been fabricated using chemical bath deposited (CBD) zinc sulfide (ZnS) buffer layers. Shell Solar Industries provided high quality CIGSS absorber layers. The use of CBD-ZnS, which is a higher band gap material than CdS, improved the quantum efficiency of fabricated cells at lower wavelengths, leading to an increase in short circuit current. The best cell to date yielded an active area (0.43 cm(2)) efficiency of 13.3%. The effect of the ZnS buffer layer thickness on device performance was studied carefully. This paper also presents a discussion of issues relevant to the use of the CBD-ZnS buffer material for improving device performance. (C) 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.