The photocurrent and the photoluminescence were studied for the In0.2Ga0.8As/GaAs strained multiple quantum-wells (MQW) structure grown by using metalorganic chemical vapor deposition. The structural properties of the In0.2Ga0.8As/GaAs strained MQW were investigated using high-resolution X-ray diffraction. For In0.2Ga0.8As/GaAs strained MQW, the peaks observed in the photocurrent and the photoluminescence spectra were preliminarily assigned to electron-heavy hole (e(1)-hh) and electron-light hole (e(1)-lh) fundamental excitionic transitions. Two additional transitions related to the MQW region were observed in the photocurrent spectra other than transitions involving the ground state. (C) 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.