We investigate by temperature‐dependent photoluminescence (PL) spectroscopy between 9 K and 300 K Zn1−xCdxSe/ZnSe strained‐layer quantum wells (QWs) with Cd contents ranging between 12% and 19% and QW thicknesses between 9 and 175 A˚, i.e., with confinement energies up to 220 meV. In the whole temperature range the PL spectra are dominated by E1‐HH1 free‐exciton recombinations. Between 9 and 300 K the intensity of this line is reduced by three to four orders of magnitude while transitions involving excited states progressively emerge. An analysis of the thermal quenching of the PL intensity reveals that for all confinement energies the escape of excitons out of the QWs is the mechanism responsible for this quenching near 300 K. ©1995 American Institute of Physics.