Uniform arrays of approximately 57 nm diam free‐standing quantum dots have been produced from GaAs/AlGaAs single quantum well material by electron‐beam lithography and low damage electron cyclotron resonance plasma etching. Low‐temperature (5 K) photoluminescence and photoluminescence excitation spectroscopy were used to characterize the material before and after processing into quantum dots. Clear free‐exciton features of linewidth comparable to that obtained from the unprocessed material have been observed in the excitation spectra of the quantum dots. As expected for this size of dot, no significant shift in the wavelength of the luminescence was observed, however, there is an apparent enhancement of the external luminescence efficiency when the geometric fill factor is taken into account. The results also show that luminescence efficiency measurements seeking to identify and elucidate intrinsic 0D effects (i.e., those due to quantum confinement in the active region) should be performed with photoexcitation directly into the active region energy states. ©1995 American Institute of Physics.