The investigation of photorefractive semiconductors is strongly motivated by near infrared applications in the 1-1.5 mum wavelength range. CdTe doped with vanadium (V) has shown high sensitivity and attractive photorefractive gain at 1.32 and 1.55 mum, and it is becoming a promising material for applications in optical telecommunication. The present work deals with photorefractive gain in CdTe:V. It has been shown that the highest gains are obtained with a square shape periodic field at an optimum frequency. By numerical calculations, we give evidence that the present behaviour can be attributed to existence of two deep levels which participate in this process. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.