Abstract
The displacement field in and around periodically arranged quantum wires embedded in a crystalline matrix is calculated analytically for an arbitrary finite thickness of the cover layer. A good agreement is obtained between measured x-ray-diffraction peaks of a wire structure and kinematical calculations with the diplacement field derived in the paper. The strain and quantum size effects on the photoluminescence line shift are found to be comparable, due to small with (35 nm) of the wires.