We carried out micro-photoluminescence studies of doped multiple quantum wire structures grown by the cleaved-edge overgrowth technique in the GaAs/AlGaAs material system. The wires are defined in a quantum well whose potential is modulated by adjacent alternating negatively and positively charged layers. We observed strong band gap renormalization effects in the quantum wires indicating that they are densely populated. The measured recombination energies are in good agreement with a simple quantum mechanical calculation. Nevertheless, the design of the sample appears to be not suitable for light scattering studies of the one dimensional (11)) electron gas, for the ID confinement strongly depends on photoexcitation. (C) 2004 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim.