Cadmium telluride (CdTe) thin films were grown by thermal evaporation method on glass and thin metallic foils such as stainless steel (SS) and molybdenum (Mo). The as-deposited film structure was studied by X-ray diffractometer. Films coated on glass for lower thickness shows amorphous structure whereas films at higher thickness exhibit crystalline nature. The structure exhibits a mixture of both cubic and hexagonal phases for films on metallic substrates. The analysis shows that the preferential orientation and grain size depend on the type of substrate used and its surface smoothness. The lattice constant and the structural parameters viz., crystallite size (D), dislocation density (delta), and strain (epsilon) were calculated and the influence of the substrates was demonstrated in this paper. (c) 2005 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.