We report continuous wave experiments on resonant Rayleigh scattering
(RRS) performed on high quality GaAs/AlGaAs quantum well structures. T
he simultaneous measurement of the resonant Rayleigh scattering and of
the photoluminescence excitation (PLE) allows us to resolve very smal
l differences between the two spectra. We show that, even in very good
samples, there is a small but detectable Stokes shift of the RRS prof
ile with respect to the PLE. It is also found that the RRS profile has
a smaller linewidth and is sensitive to bound exciton transitions whi
ch are not detectable in the PLE. We compare our data with previous fi
ndings and discuss possible origins of the Stokes shift.