We present photoinduced intersubband absorption measurements in HgCdTe undoped quantum wells. The transition energies and the linewidths are well described by a full 8×8k⋅pKane model calculation. Also, based on this model we show that different in‐plane effective masses for the first and second electron subbands should be considered in order to properly fit the low energy side of the experimental spectra. The experimental results can be explained using the calculated intersubband oscillator strength with no exciton enhancement. ©1995 American Institute of Physics.