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Phonon modes of PbTe films grown by molecular beam epitaxy have been studied by micro-Raman scattering. On the as-grown PbTe surface, strong TeO2 phonon vibrational modes were detected, which obscured the observation of the longitudinal optical (LO) phonons of PbTe in early conventional Raman scattering experiments. Existence of a TeO2 layer on the PbTe surface is confirmed by observation with x-ray photoemission spectroscopy. After removal of TeO2 by chemical etching, the LO phonons for PbTe films were unambiguously observed. Misfit strain accommodated in the epitaxial films makes the lattice distorted from cubic structure, which lowers the crystal symmetry and leads to observation of what would normally be Raman inactive LO phonon modes for PbTe. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]