Nitrogen atoms were implanted into ZnSe layers which were grown by metalorganic chemical vapor deposition. The implanted crystals were thermally annealed in a nitrogen atmosphere. Photoluminescence spectra show an acceptor‐bound excitonic emission line (I1) and donor‐to‐acceptor pair (DAP) recombination emission, which reveal the activation of nitrogen atoms as shallow acceptors. An additional DAP emission was observed at 462 nm, which is often seen for ZnSe:N grown by molecular beam epitaxy. The selenium vacancy generation accelerates the occupation of nitrogen atoms at the selenium sites and the excess vacancy generation brings about the formation of deep donor complexes. ©1995 American Institute of Physics.