Thin films of Zn1-xCdxS (0.1 ≤ x ≤ 0.5) were prepared by using pulsed laser ablation technique on corning glass substrates. Phase transition from cubic to hexagonal in Zn1-xCdxS films is determined by X-ray diffraction analysis. We observed a lowering in the phase transition temperature with increase in the cadmium concentration. Transmission electron microscopy suggests the crystalline nature of thin films with average particle size of 15 nm. The grown Zn1-xCdxS samples show the high peak intensity ratio of the near band edge emission to the defect center luminescence even at room temperature, which indicates the small concentration of complex defects in the samples. Photoluminescence measurement show stoichiometric dependence of the energy band gap and is found to have quadratic dependence on x.