Nonlinear optical properties of a quantum well with inversely quadratic Hellman potential

A theoretical investigation of intraband nonlinear optical properties of a GaAs quantum well with inversely quadratic Hellman potential have been performed. It considers the presence of external electric and magnetic fields. In addition to this, the effects of the adjustable physical parameters ( $$\eta $$ η and $$V_0$$ V 0 ) of the system on the optical properties of this structure were also investigated. For these numerical calculations, firstly, the conduction subband energy levels and the corresponding wave functions are obtained by solving the Schrödinger equation using the diagonalization method within the framework of effective mass and parabolic band approximations. Based on this information, results of numerical calculations for the linear, third-order nonlinear, and total optical absorption and relative refractive index change coefficients are presented. The obtained numerical results show the increase of the resonance peaks amplitudes with applied external electric and magnetic fields, as well as the shifting of their position the towards higher energies. It was also observed that the variations in $$\eta $$ η and $$V_0$$ V 0 have important effects on the magnitude and position of the resonance peaks. We believe that these results can be helpful in the design and practice of the optoelectronic devices used in the terahertz electromagnetic spectrum. Graphic abstract