A study of the effects of reactive ion etching on molecular beam epita
xy grown (CdxZn1-xSe/ZnSe) strained quantum well (QW) samples using lo
w temperature photoluminescence reveals a blue shift in the characteri
stic peak position of the 8 nm QW when exposed to plasmas of H-2, D-2,
or He. Based on experimental results we suggest that this blue shift
is a result of ion induced damage interacting with strain present in t
he as-grown QW. The QW is compressively strained at the interface with
additional local strains in the QW lattice due to its random ternary
alloy composition. The shallowest QW samples exhibit a peak in the blu
e shift as a function of bias voltage, with a reduced blue shift seen
at high voltages. (C) 1997 American Vacuum Society.