Electron-related optical responses in triangular quantum dots

• Optical absorption and changes in refractive index in triangular quantum dots.
• The effective mass and parabolic band approximations have been used.
• The increase in the size of the dot leads to a red shift of optical properties.
• Also, an increment in the values of the off-diagonal electric dipole moment matrix.
• The increase of the amplitude of the optical absorption is observed.

The linear and nonlinear coefficients for the optical absorption and relative refractive index change associated with intersubband transitions of electrons in the conduction band of a two-dimensional quantum dot of triangular shape are calculated for x-polarization and y-polarization of the incident light. Both the effective mass and parabolic band approximations have been considered. The results show that the increase in the size of the triangular quantum dot leads to the expected fall of the intersubband energy transition and that there is an increment in the values of the associated off-diagonal electric dipole moment matrix elements. All this reflects in the increase of the amplitude of the nonlinear optical absorption resonant peak, as well as in the growth of the total relative refractive index in the system.