<p>Thin films of tin sulfide (SnS) were deposited on the silicon wafer substrates via thermal evaporation technique. To achieve high performance in the fabricated visible light photodetectors (PDs), the structure, morphology, composition, and the optical characteristics of the SnS films were investigated by varying the substrate temperature over a range of 120–270 ^oC. X-ray diffraction (XRD) and Raman studies indicated the formation of an orthorhombic SnS phase. Phase-pure SnS thin films of enhanced crystallinity were obtained for relatively low substrate temperature of 170 ^oC. SEM images confirmed vertically grown grain surface morphology, and the surface of the film was compact with densely packed large grains at a substrate temperature of 170 ^oC. The optical properties of the deposited films were analyzed from the diffuse reflectance spectroscopy (DRS) measurements. Photodetectors (PDs) are fabricated using metal masks and making thermally evaporated silver (Ag) electrical contact onto SnS thin films. Photoresponse properties of all the photodetectors were tested using a 532&#xa0;nm laser source of different power densities (1–5 mW/cm²) under dark and illumination conditions. I-V characterization of PDs indicated excellent photocurrent (I_PC) of 18.66 µA under 5&#xa0;V bias and 5 mWcm^− 2 incident light intensity. The performance of the PDs was assessed by estimating responsivity (R), external quantum efficiency (EQE), specific detectivity (D*), and response/recovery time. The best photodetector devices fabricated using films deposited at 170 ^oC had an upmost responsivity of 36 × 10^− 2 AW^− 1, external quantum efficiency (EQE) of 85%, and a detectivity of 3.58 × 10¹⁰ Jones. Ultra-short response/recovery times of 0.27s/0.27s confirmed the high switching speed of the SnS/Si PDs. The findings of this study demonstrated a promising approach to enhancing the response speed of SnS thin film photodetectors for emerging visible light detection applications.</p>