Manipulation of tunneling induced transparency windows and optical switching features in fivefold quantum dot molecules

•Optical properties of the multiple QDMs composed of five quantum dots are explored.•Results show that at least one and at most four TIT windows can be established.•The required switching time for the gain to absorption estimated approximately to be 20.7 ns.

Transient and steady-state behavior of the probe absorption in a multiple quantum dot (QD) molecule composed of five quantum dots molecules (with a center dot and four satellite dots) is explored with application in all-optical switching. We find that the absorption spectra of the light pulse can be efficiently modified via the effect of inter-dot tunnel couplings of QDs and incoherent pumping field. Results show that depending on the values of system parameters, at least one and at most four tunneling induced transparency (TIT) windows can be established in the multiple QD medium. We then investigate the dynamical behavior of the probe absorption-amplification as well as the optical switching in pulsed regime. By adjusting the incoherent pumping rate, the required switching time for changing the gain to the absorption or vice versa is then estimated approximately to be 20.7 nanosecond (ns), that is an appropriate time for such a QDM-based switch.