Abstract
The nonresonant excitonic optical Stark effect is calculated for quasi-one-dimensional semiconductor quantum wires up to first order in the pump intensity. For quasistationary situations a large blueshift with an oscillator strength that decreases with pump intensity is predicted. This result is due to the dominance of the phase-space filling effect in quantum wires and is in striking contrast with results for corresponding three-dimensional (3D) and 2D systems.