Thin film electroluminescent displays are attractive commercially as well as scientifically and of technological interest in the design of large area, flat screen displays. The interest in developing reliable luminescent materials for applications on flat panel displays has produced a considerable research effort in this area. This effort has been directed to the techniques of film deposition as well as to the different types of materials and dopants used as active components on electroluminescent devices. Applications of ZnS and ZnS:Mn films in electroluminescent displays have been increasing examined. Mn-doped ZnS is one of the most studied materials for luminescent devices. Zinc sulphide is a semiconductor suitable to be used as host matrix for a large variety of dopants because of its wide energy band gap. The sol-gel process is now well accepted as a technology for preparing thin films. The advantages of the sol-gel process are that it is simple and inexpensive and has the general advantages of producing large area, high purity, homogeneous films at relative low temperatures. Electroluminescent thin film display structures require the fabrication of insulators, transparent conductors and electroluminescent materials. In this project all of these materials have been produced using the sol-gel technique. Insulating films of silicon dioxide and aluminium oxide were fabricated from silicon and aluminium alkoxides respectively and their characteristics measured. Transparent conductors were produced from aluminium-doped zinc oxide using a zinc acetate precursor. The dependence of electrical characteristics upon aluminum concentration in the films and upon post-deposition heat treatment in vacuum was examined. The effect of changing the aluminum-to-zinc ratio from 0-4.5 at.% (atomic percent) and heat treatment temperature in vacuum have been thoroughly investigated. Resistivities of (7- 10)xl0~4 Qcm have been achieved for ZnO:Al films with Al/Zn 0.8 at.% heated to 450°C in vacuum. Transmittance in the visible region is above 90%. Similar results were obtained using aluminum chloride and aluminum nitrate as the aluminum precursor. Electroluminescent films of zinc sulphide were produced by a novel method involving sol-gel deposition of zinc oxide and a conversion technique where the films were annealed in a sulphiding atmosphere to produce zinc sulphide. The characteristics of these films were investigated using scanning electron microscopy, X-ray diffraction, infrared spectroscopy and optical transmission spectroscopy. Electroluminescent devices were fabricated using manganese and terbium doped zinc sulphide and the luminescent characteristics of the displays were measured as a function of dopant concentration, applied voltage, driving frequency and insulator type. It is has been demonstrated that the sol-gel technique is a simple, cheap method for the construction of electroluminescent displays.