CdTe is a semiconductor with a wide variety of applications and perspectives for electronic industry (high-efficiency photoelectric cells, infrared radiation detectors, etc.). In the present work, we used photoacoustic (PA) technique to study the thermal properties and the surface recombination velocity in CdTe/glass samples. Experimental PA phase signal as a function of modulation frequency in a heat transmission configuration was fitted to the theoretical expression for PA signal, which takes into account the heat sources resulting from the absorption of light in semiconductors and the nonradiative processes involved, which depend on their thermal, optical and electronic transport properties. By this procedure, it was possible to determine the thermal diffusivity and the surface recombination velocity in these samples. The studied samples were thin polycrystalline CdTe film deposited on glass slides. CdTe layers were deposited by a hot-wall closed-spaced vapor transport method, known as gradient recrystallization and growth. The values for the deposition parameters used in this study were the following: 700 degrees C for the source temperature and 450 and 550 degrees C for the substrate temperatures with three different deposition times from 5 to 20 min (then three different film thicknesses were obtained). A clear increment in the surface velocity and surface roughness is observed as the film thickness is increased. (c) 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.