Amorphous cadmium-telluride films were prepared by rf sputtering on Corning 7059 glass substrates at room temperature. The deposition time was 10 and 12 h with a thickness of 400 and 480 (+/- 40 nm), respectively. As-prepared films were amorphous according to X-ray diffraction (XRD) patterns, but a win-fit-software analysis of the main XRD broad band suggests a wurtzite structure at short range. Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) at 200 keV produces crystallization of the amorphous CdTe. The TEM-electron beam induces the formation of CdTe quantum dots with the wurtzite hexagonal structure (the metastable structure of CdTe) and with similar to 6 nm of average grain size. As effect of a probable distortion of the CdTe crystalline lattice, the unit cell volume (UCV) shrinks to about 30% with respect to the bulk-UCV of CdTe. Besides, the energy band gap increases as expected, according to literature data on quantum confinement. (C) 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.