Magnetic field and temperature dependent measurements are used to study the
excitonic properties of high quality ZnSe quantum wells in MgS barriers gr
own by molecular beam epitaxy. The small inhomogeneous broadening of the sa
mples allows the observation of higher excited exciton states. Due to the l
arge difference in band gap between ZnSe and MgS a value of 43.9 meV was me
asured for the exciton binding energy which is the largest reported for thi
s material system. The full width at half maximum of the heavy hole transit
ions is measured as a function of temperature and the broadening of the exc
itonic transitions in narrow quantum wells is reduced compared to the ZnSe
bulk value due to the expected reduction in the LO-phonon scattering. (C) 2
000 American Institute of Physics. [S0003-6951(00)02650-4].