We report on an overgrowth of shallowly buried quantum wells (QW) of diluted magnetic semiconductor (DMS) (with non-magnetic CdMgTe or ZnTe barriers) on ferromagnetic MnAs and GaMnAs films. Atomic force microscopy (AFM) of the structures grown on MnAs revealed protruded micrometer-size islands, surrounded by areas with small-scale roughness. Magnetic force microscopy (MFM) imaging at room temperature showed clear magnetic domains within these islands. The structures overgrown on GaMnAs exhibited smooth surfaces, but no magnetic signal was detectable. The luminescence (PL) emission attributable to CdMnTe quantum wells was observed from all overgrown structures. Spatially resolved mu-PL showed that the peak energy of emission depended on the position of the excitation and PL collection spot for the samples overgrown on MnAs and was slightly blue-shifted when recorded from the magnetized islands area. (C) 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.