Linear and Nonlinear Intersubband Optical Properties of Direct Band Gap GeSn Quantum Dots

Nanomaterials (Basel). 2019 Jan 19;9(1):124. doi: 10.3390/nano9010124.

Abstract

Intersubband optical transitions, refractive index changes, and absorption coefficients are numerically driven for direct bandgap strained GeSn/Ge quantum dots. The linear, third-order nonlinear and total, absorption coefficients and refractive index changes are evaluated over useful dot sizes' range ensuring p-like Γ-electron energy state to be lower than s-like L-electron energy state. The results show strong dependence of the total absorption coefficient and refractive index changes on the quantum dot sizes. The third order nonlinear contribution is found to be sensitive to the incident light intensity affecting both total absorption coefficient and refractive index changes, especially for larger dot sizes.

Keywords: GeSn; absorption coefficients; direct band gap; intersubband nonlinear optics; quantum dot; refractive index changes.