The nonlinear optical rectification in asymmetrical and symmetrical Gaussian potential quantum wells with applied electric field

A detailed investigation of nonlinear optical rectification (OR) of asymmetrical and symmetrical Gaussian potential quantum wells (QWs) under the influence of applied electric field by using the compact-density-matrix approach is presented. We find that the approximation of the asymmetrical Gaussian potential QWs is extremely unreasonable in the previous works, some new and reliable results are obtained by us. The energy eigenvalues and their corresponding eigenfunctions of the asymmetrical and symmetrical Gaussian potential QWs are calculated with the differential method. According to the results obtained from the present work, we find that the applied electric field and the geometry factors have great influence on the nonlinear OR in these system. (C) 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.