Excitonic effects in nonlinear optical rectification in small semi-parabolic quantum dots

We study the effects of excitons in nonlinear optical rectification in one-dimensional semi-parabolic quantum dots. We consider the case that the electron and the hole are confined in semi-parabolic potential with the same oscillator frequency. We present approximate analytical results in the strong confinement regime and find a closed-form relation between the nonlinear optical rectification coefficient of an exciton in the structure and the corresponding coefficient when only one electron exists in the structure. These results are also verified by numerical calculations performed with the potential morphing method. (c) 2007 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim.