An improved Γ-Riccati Bäcklund transformation and its applications for the inhomogeneous nonlinear Schrödinger model from plasma physics and nonlinear optics

► An improved Γ-Riccati Bäcklund transformation of the inhomogeneous NLS is presented. ► The Darboux transformation of the model is obtained using the improved Γ-R BT. ► The analytic one/two-soliton-like solutions are obtained. ► The physical characteristics are discussed graphically.