The paper reports the growth of cadmium telluride (CdTe) thin films by pulsed laser deposition (PLD) using excimer laser (KrF, lambda=248 nm, 10 Hz) on coming 7059 glass and SnO2-coated glass (SnO2/glass) substrates at different substrate temperatures (T-s) and at different laser energy pulses. Single crystal target CdTe was used for deposition of thin films. With 30 min deposition time, 1.8- to similar to3-mum-thick films were obtained up to 200 degreesC substrate temperature. However, the film re-evaporates from the substrate surface at temperatures >275 degreesC. Atomic force microscopy (AFM) shows an average grain size similar to0.3 mum. X-ray diffraction analysis confirms the formation of CdTe cubic phase at all pulse energies except at 200 mJ. At 200 mJ laser energy, the films show hexagonal phase. Optical properties of CdTe were also investigated and the band gap of CdTe films were found as 1.54 eV for hexagonal phase and similar to1.6 eV for cubic phase. (C) 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.