A damage-nucleated wet crystallographic etch technique has been developed for AlGaAs. The etch extends beyond the initial patterned region, and is thus able to remove peripheral damage. GaAs is not appreciably affected at the dose required, and hence a GaAs layer may be used as an etch stop. The technique is readily applicable to the generation of quantum wires and dots. Photoluminescence studies of several preliminary dot structures in quantum well material show signals whose strength varies with dot size and with dose.