The field emission property of zinc sulphides nanorods synthesized in the thin film form on Si substrates has been studied. It is seen that ZnS nanorod thin films showed good field emission properties with a low-macroscopic turn-on field (2.9-6.3 V/mu m). ZnS nanorods were synthesized by using radio frequency magnetron sputtering of a polycrystalline prefabricated ZnS target at a relatively higher pressure (10(-1) mbar) and at a lower substrate temperature (233-273 K) without using any catalyst. Transmission electron microscopic image showed the formation of ZnS nanorods with high aspect ratio (> 60). The field emission data were analysed using Fowler-Nordhiem theory and the nearly straight-line nature of the F-N plots confirmed cold field emission of electrons. It was also found that the turn-on field decreased with the decrease of nanorod's diameters. The optical properties of the ZnS nanorods were also studied. From the measurements of transmittance of the films deposited on glass substrates, the direct allowed bandgap values have been calculated and they were in the range 3.83-4.03 eV. The thickness of the films was similar to 600 nm. (c) 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.