At Low temperatures, where the concentration of hole carriers is less than 1.5x1020 cm−3 , Tin Telluride exists in rhombohedral phase also known as α-SnTe.

At room temperature and atmospheric pressure, Tin Telluride exists in NaCl-like cubic crystal phase, known as β-SnTe.

While at 18 kbar pressure, β-SnTe transforms to γ-SnTe, orthorhombic phase, space group Pnma.

[7] Generally Pb is alloyed with SnTe in order to access interesting optical and electronic properties, In addition, as a result of Quantum confinement, the band gap of the SnTe increases beyond the bulk band gap, covering the mid-IR wavelength range.

The alloyed material has been used in mid- IR photodetectors [9] and thermoelectric generator.