Nonlinear optical rectification and optical absorption in GaAsGa 1xAlxAs asymmetric double quantum wells: Combined effects of applied electric and magnetic fields and hydrostatic pressure

The intersubband electron-related nonlinear optical absorption and nonlinear optical rectification in GaAsGa1xAlxAs asymmetric double quantum wells are studied, under the influence of combined or independent applied electric and magnetic fields as well as hydrostatic pressure. The outcome of the density matrix formalism and the effective mass, and parabolic-band approximations have been considered as main theoretical tools for the description. It is obtained that under particular geometrical conditions, with or without electric and/or magnetic field strength, the optical rectification is null and, simultaneously, in such circumstances the optical absorption has a relative maximum. It is also detected that the influence of the hydrostatic pressure leads to increasing or decreasing behaviors of the nonlinear optical absorption in dependence of the particular regime of pressure values considered, with significant distinction of the cases of opposite electric field orientations. © 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.