In this article, we report the influence of InGaP barrier layer on the performance of 1.3 mum InAsP/InP/InGaP strain-compensated multiquantum-well (SCMQW) laser diodes (LDs) grown by metalorganic chemical vapor deposition. Sharp satellite peaks with narrow width in double-crystal X-ray diffraction measurements and abrupt interface in secondary ion mass spectrometry analyses are observed, indicating that a good epitaxial-layer quality can be obtained through the use of strain-compensation coupled by InGaP barrier layers. By increasing InGaP barrier thickness to above 6 nm, a redshift of the photoluminescence peak is observed in the (100)-oriented strained layers. It is probably attributed to redistribution across the samples of the huge built-in electric field induced by the piezoelectric effect. The threshold current of InAsP/InP/lnGaP SCMQW ridge-waveguide LEDs decreases from 78.8 to 33.8 mA through the employ of tensile-strained InGaP barrier layer and the lasing wavelength is 1.307 mum under 44 mA. In addition, the experimental data of broad-area LDs for the InAsP/InP strained multiquantum-well and InAsP/InP/InGaP SCMQW structures are compared in detail. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.