The successful growth of self-organized quantum dots (QDs) of CdTe on ZnTe (100) surface by molecular beam epitaxy is reported. Atomic force microscope measurements on the uncapped samples revealed the formation of CdTe QDs with typical dot diameters of20±2 nmand heights of2.7±0.3 nmat 3.5-ML-thick CdTe deposited. The intensity of photoluminescence (PL) from the capped QDs was higher than CdTe/ZnTe single quantum wells (SQWs) by a few orders of magnitude at 4.2 K, and exhibited a thermal quenching with an activation energy of 110 meV, which is about twice as large as those in SQWs. In time-resolved PL measurements, the decay time was almost independent of temperature below 20 K. This is interpreted as due to the zero-dimensional excitonic properties in QDs. ©1998 American Institute of Physics.