The interfacial coherency of metal organic chemical vapor deposition grown InGaAsP/InP heterostructure wafers was examined and their influences on the optoelectronic properties were investigated in this study. (400) symmetric and (511) asymmetric reflections were employed to measure the lattice coherency. Existence of misfit dislocations was examined by x-ray topography and reverified by photoluminescence (PL) imaging. PI, measurements were performed, and higher PL intensity was obtained for elastically strained samples and lower intensity for plastically deformed samples. The highest PL intensity was obtained for the sample lattice matched at the growth temperature. PL full-width at half maximum (FWHM) was found to depend on the degree of lattice mismatch. A correlatior between x-ray FWHM and PL intensity was empirically established. The results presented demonstrate that the interfacial coherency is of primary significance in affecting the optoelectronic properties through elastic strain and plastic deformation.