Regulation of optical properties by applied external fields for a quantum well with Hulthen potential

Abstract

Abstract In this present study, the effects of electric, magnetic, and non-resonant intense laser field (ILF) on the linear, third-order nonlinear, and total optical absorption coefficients (TOACs) and relative refractive index changes (RRICs) of GaAs quantum well, having Hulthen confinement potential, were theoretically investigated. In addition, the dependence of the nonlinear optical properties in the structure on the optical intensity of incident photon and the inverse relaxation time was also calculated. To do this research, firstly the energy eigenvalues and eigenfunctions of the structure were calculated by using the effective mass and envelope function approaches. By using these calculated subband energy levels and wave functions belonging to these levels, the nonlinear optical properties of the system were obtained via the iterative method, within the compact density matrix approach framework. The obtained numerical results show that the optical properties of the considered system depend on the externally applied fields. With the applied external electric and magnetic field, the peak positions of TOACs and RRICs shift to higher energies, and the peak magnitudes increase. The high-frequency ILF applied to the structure shifts the peak positions of TOACs and RRICs initially towards higher energies and then towards lower energies and their peak sizes increase. These results show that the optical properties of the system can be adjusted purposively by changing the magnitude of applied external fields.