Undoped and X-(Cu, Al & Zn) doped lead iodide crystals have been grown by gel technique. Interestingly, thin films of these gel grown crystals have been prepared of various thicknesses by vacuum thermal evaporation technique on glass substrates (800 C). These films are smooth, uniform, adhesive and reflecting. Optical and structural investigations of these thin films were carried out. Measurements of absorption coefficients have been carried out and reported. As expected, the optical energy gap decreases with increasing dopant concentration, but in case of Aldoped thin films optical energy gap increases in the present investigation. The thin films are polycrystalline in nature and crystallinity increases after doping but decreases when the thickness increased (above 3000���º). The absorption edge shifts towards the higher wavelength side and becomes broader as the doping concentrations were increased. X-ray diffractograms and Scanning Electron Microscopy were employed on these thin films. The lattice parameters and the [h, k, l] values almost matching with the ASTM data for lead iodide.
