We report on luminescence and structural properties of strain-compensated 1.3-mum GaInNAs/GaNAs/GaAs quantum-well (QW) laser structure, grown by solid-source molecular beam epitaxy with an rf-coupled nitrogen plasma source. The layer design consists of a strain-mediating GaInNAs layer sandwiched in between a highly compressive GaInNAs QW and a strain-compensating GaNAs layer. Insertion of the strain-mediating layer shifts light emission towards longer wavelengths, increases light emission, and improves structural properties of the QW, as deduced from the measurements of photoluminescence and X-ray diffraction. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.