We report on characterizations of polycrystalline CdTe on CdS grown by hot-wall vacuum evaporation. The CdTe film grown on CdS/SnO2/glass was compared with the other two CdTe films, which were grown directly on #7059 glass and on SnO2-coated glass. The grown CdTe/CdS film is composed of a grain size 3-15 mum and have a close-packed structure compared to other CdTe films. A weak excitonic peak at 1.59eV as well as two kinds of donor-acceptor pair emission bands has been observed in PL spectrum of CdTe/CdS film. On the other hand, the excitonic peak cannot be detected in other CdTe films. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.