A double heterostructure light emitting semiconductor device is described wherein a narrow bandgap active region is sandwiched between two wider bandgap cladding layers, one of which contains a p-n homojunction. The purpose is to separate the p-n junction from the active region and, thus, to have the active region bounded by two isotype (p-p or n-n) heterojunctions. This configuration significantly reduces nonradiative interface recombination current which occurs principally at the anisotype (p-n) heterojunction in a standard double heterostructure.