Hall‐effect and conductivity measurements as well as channeling‐effect measurements were used to study the lattice defects induced by ion implantation in thin films of PbTe. The implantation was performed with 300‐keV Pb, Te, and Xe ions at room temperature. For the as‐implanted samples the Hall‐effect measurements gave a constant value for the carrier concentration, independent of the implantation dose. The backscattering measurements showed a continuous increase in the lattice disorder with increasing dose. A model, based on the assumption of an acceptor level above the conduction‐band minimum, is proposed to explain this behavior.