The effect of hydrostatic pressure, temperature and magnetic field on the nonlinear optical properties of asymmetrical Gaussian potential quantum wells

•Optical properties of asymmetrical Gaussian potential QWs are discussed with multiple effects.•The new and reliable results are obtained via the fine difference method.•The influence of applied magnetic field is significant with respect to other effects.

In this study, simultaneous effects of hydrostatic pressure, temperature and magnetic field on the linear and nonlinear intersubband optical absorption coefficients (OACs) and refractive index changes (RICs) in asymmetrical Gaussian potential quantum wells (QWs) are theoretically investigated within the framework of the compact-density-matrix approach and iterative method. The energy eigenvalues and their corresponding eigenfunctions of the system are calculated with the differential method. Our results show that the position and the magnitude of the resonant peaks of the nonlinear OACs and RICs depend strongly on the hydrostatic pressure, temperature and external magnetic field. This gives a new degree of freedom in various device applications based on the intersubband transitions of electrons.