The tri-methyl-Sb flow and the surfactant time dependence of photocurrent (PC) spectra was studied on InGaAsN/ GaAs-strained multiple quantum wells (MQWs) structures grown by using metalorganic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD). The structural properties of InGaAsN/GaAs-strained MQWs were investigated by using high-resolution Xray diffraction (HRXRD). In the case of InGaAsN/GaAs-strained MQWs, an increase in compressive strain from an analysis of the satellite peaks in HRXRD was observed on increasing the tri-methyl-Sb flow and the surfactant time. For InGaAsN/GaAs-strained MQWs, the peaks observed in the photocurrent spectra were preliminarily assigned to electron-heavy hole (e(1)-hh) and electron-light hole (e(1)-1h) fundamental excitonic transitions. Their peaks are red-shifted with increasing tri-methyl-Sb flow and surfactant time. But the photocurrent peak is blue-shifted at the surfactant time of 12 s. It seems to be due to the improvement of structure properties at interface owing to a surfactant-suppressing surface diffusion phenomenon during growth. We compared this with the result of the experimental energies for InGaAsN/GaAs-strained MQWs. (C) 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.