We investigate the effect of micro-fabrication process damage on the photoluminescence characteristics of laser structures containing a GaInNAs and GaInAs quantum wells. By varying the size of the fabricated island structure, its impact on the photoluminescence intensity is studied. The GaInAs sample shows a strong decrease in its intensity with the reduction of the island size. In contrast, a slight increase is observed from the GaInNAs sample. This indicates the negligible impact of surface recombination on the GaInNAs sample, as well as the optical confinement within the micrometer-size island structure. The results suggest the feasibility of a GaInNAs gain medium for application to microfabricated optical devices.