Tunability of the optical absorption and refractive index changes in step-like and parabolic quantum wells under external electric field

Abstract

In this paper, the effects of an external electric field on the energy transitions and optical absorption lineshape in step and parabolic GaAs quantum wells are theoretically investigated. The energy separations between the three lowest energy levels E1, E2 and E3 and their corresponding wavefunctions are calculated by solving the Schrödinger equation. Our theoretical findings show that the intersubband transitions and the optical absorption in the step-like quantum well can be tuned and controlled by an applied electric field (F). Especially the optical absorption coefficient α12(ω) presents a blue shift by increasing the intensity of F. Contrary to the case of step-like quantum well, the energy transition and the optical absorption coefficient α12(ω) are less sensitive to the applied electric field F in the case of parabolic quantum well. In the latter case α12(ω) presents a small red-shift variation. The obtained behavior in the optical absorption coefficient and refractive index changes can be used to design and fabricate new optical devices such as optical modulators.