Optical rectification and effective equivalence between the asymmetric multiple quantum well and electric field potentials for fixed total length GaAs/AlGaAs systems

Abstract

In this study, we theoretically investigate the electron subband energy levels, corresponding wave functions, number of bound states, and optical rectification coefficient (ORC) of one-dimensional GaAs/AlGaAs asymmetric multiple quantum wells. We consider two scenarios: systems with a fixed total length and systems with a variable total length. Our analysis reveals an effective equivalence between the influence of these asymmetric multi-quantum well structures and that of external electric fields on the wave functions. We also examine wave function engineering by adjusting parameters such as the number of wells and the composition factor. The findings indicate that both variable-length and fixed-length systems produce comparable ORC amplitudes. Therefore, we suggest that fixed-length systems are preferable, as they allow for smaller optical device dimensions.