The structural and optical characteristics of InP-based compressively strained InGaAs quantum wells have been significantly improved by using gas source molecular beam epitaxy grown InAs/Ino.53Ga0.47As digital alloy triangular well layers and tensile Ino.53Ga0.47As/InAiGaAs digital alloy barrier layers. The x-ray diffraction and transmission electron microscope characterisations indicate that the digital alloy structures present favourable lattice quality. Photo- luminescence (PL) and electroluminescence (EL) measurements show that the use of digital alloy barriers offers better optical characteristics than that of conventional random alloy barriers. A significantly improved PL signal of around 2.1μm at 300 K and an EL signal of around 1.95μm at 100 K have been obtained.