Molybdenum disulphide, MoS2, thin films have been deposited by chemical bath deposition method on glass and quartz substrate using ammonium tetrathiomolybdate as a single source precursor for Mo and S and subjected to vacuum heat treatment at different temperatures. X-ray diffraction of as-deposited film indicated its amorphous character and showed the development of poorly crystalline MoS2 thin film on increasing annealing temperature. The film has been characterized by energy dispersive X-ray analysis, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, scanning electron micrograph and the optical properties also have been studied. (c) 2005 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.