Semiconductor nanomembranes are promising systems for many applications, since the band structure of a given material can be tailored to achieve specific configurations, which are not feasible by conventional growth procedures on rigid substrates. Here we show that optically active III–V membranes containing InAs quantum dots exhibit a pronounced photoluminescence enhancement with respect to equivalent systems grown on top of flat substrates. The effect is explained by the formation of carrier depletion regions symmetrically located with respect to the optically active layer. This leads to the filling of excited states of the quantum dots and the overall spectra are enhanced at higher energies. Changes on the strain field that are expected to lead to a red-shift of the quantum dot emission play a reduced role in the final emission spectra in comparison with the depletion effects. These effects can be considered as another degree of freedom and a key ingredient for band engineering of extremely thin semiconductor membranes.Keywords: semiconductor nanomembranes; heterostructures; X-ray diffraction; photoluminescence; carrier depletion