Intersubband Optical Absorption Coefficients and Refractive Index Changes in a Gaussian Spherical Quantum Dot

The effects of smooth confining potential on the linear and nonlinear optical properties are investigated with Gaussian confining potential in Quantum Dots (GQDs). To this end the effective mass approximation, the compact density matrix approach, and iterative method are used to calculate linear and nonlinear Absorption Coefficient (AC) and Refractive Index (RI) change of an electron confined in GQD. The effects of confining potential and radius of GQD and also incident optical intensity have been investigated. The results show that increasing confining potential decreases the refractive index magnitude and shifts the peak values to the higher energy regions. It is also shown that the peak values of absorption coefficient increase by increasing confining potential. Both absorption coefficient and refractive index experience red shift by increasing the size of quantum dot. It is also shown that transition from step potential to Gaussian potential makes AC and RI to experience a blue shift.