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Sphalerite is the cubic mineral form of zinc sulfide, $\mathrm{ZnS}$. Its zinc-blende structure has tetrahedral coordination around the two types of lattice sites.

The same structural pattern occurs in other compound semiconductors, so the mineral name also labels a reusable crystal-structure type. Chemical composition and structural type are related descriptions, not interchangeable ones.

The binary diamond-related structure with two interpenetrating face-centred cubic sublattices displaced by a quarter of a body diagonal. Each site has four tetrahedrally arranged neighbours of the other species. Gallium phosphide is an example; this structure name is distinct from the mineral sphalerite.

Zinc sulfide is $\mathrm{ZnS}$, a semiconductor compound with common cubic and hexagonal structural forms. Sphalerite is the familiar cubic mineral form.

Its optical response depends on crystal structure, defects, and dopants. Zinc sulfide therefore illustrates why luminescence is often a property of a carefully prepared material rather than a prediction from the bare formula alone.