Linear and nonlinear intersubband optical absorption and refractive index change in asymmetrical semi-exponential quantum wells

Linear and nonlinear intersubband optical absorption and refractive index change in asymmetrical semi-exponential quantum wells are theoretically investigated within the framework of the compact-density-matrix approach and iterative method. The wave functions are obtained by using the effective mass approximation. The energy levels are obtained by numerical method. It is found that the optical absorption coefficients and refractive index changes are strongly affected not only by sigma and U-0, but also by the incident optical intensity. (C) 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.