Previously this newsletter has reviewed progress in the various fields of the PV industry by the type of materials. In the last issue it was the turn of one of the newer semiconductor material systems, the alloy silicon-germanium (SiGe). Attention this time turns to a much longer-established materials family, the II-VI compound semiconductors. These include the oxides, sulfides, selenides and tellurides of cadmium, zinc and mercury in the form of complex multi-layer, multi-element compound structures.