Intersubband optical absorption coefficients and refractive index changes in triple quantum well with different well shapes

¹ Department of Physics, Cumhuriyet University, 58140 Sivas, Turkey
² Department of Physics, Dokuz Eylül University, Izmir, Turkey

Corresponding author: eozturk@cumhuriyet.edu.tr

Received: 16 April 2010
Accepted: 27 April 2010
Published online: 17 June 2010

Abstract

In this study, both the intersubband optical absorption coefficients and the refractive index changes in triple quantum well (TQW) with different well shapes for different barrier widths is theoretically calculated within framework of the effective mass approximation. Results obtained show that intersubband transitions and the energy levels in triple quantum well can importantly be modified and controlled by the barrier width. By considering the variation of the energy differences, it should point out that by increasing barrier width we can obtain a blue or red shift in the intersubband optical transitions. The sensitivity to the barrier width of the absorption coefficient and the refractive index changes can be used in various optical semiconductor device applications.