CdSe0.3Te0.7 alloy was prepared from the individual components and its composition and structural analysis were done. Films were prepared by hot wall deposition technique using 0.15 m length tube under a vacuum of 5 x 10(-5) Torr on well cleaned glass substrates. The composition, structural, morphological, and optical properties of hot wall deposited films were investigated. The XRD analysis revealed that the films are like amorphous in nature for lower thicknesses but with increasing thickness a more preferred orientation along (10 1) direction was observed. The crystallite size (D), dislocation density (delta) and strain (epsilon) were evaluated. From the EDX composition analysis, the individual concentrations of Se and Te in the films were estimated. An analysis of optical measurements shows that all the films have fairly good transparency above 850 nm. The optical band gap was found to be around 1.55 eV and decreases with increasing thickness. Also comparison of band gap with corresponding values for Use and CdTe are made. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.