We report the result of a detailed spectroscopic investigation of the
optical properties of excitons in rectangular (etched) and V-shaped (g
rown on non-planar substrates) GaAs quantum wires. High index excitoni
c transitions and strong polarization anisotropy of the optical spectr
a have been observed. The experimentally observed trasitions are in ag
reement with the theoretical evaluation of quantized energy levels bas
ed on the respective model potential.