Optical absorptions of an exciton in a disc-like quantum dot under an electric field

Abstract An exciton in a disc-like quantum dot (QD) with the parabolic confinement, under applied electric field, is studied within the framework of the effective-mass approximation. Both the electric field and the confinement effects on the transition energy and the oscillator strength were investigated. Based on the computed energies and wave functions, the linear, the third-order nonlinear and the total optical absorption coefficients were also calculated. We found that the optical absorption coefficients with considering excitonic effects are stronger than those without considering excitonic effects and the absorption peak will move to the right side induced by the electron–hole interaction, which shows an excitonic effect blue-shift of the resonance in QDs. The applied electric field may affect either the size or the position of absorption peaks of excitons. However, the applied electric field may only affect the size of absorption peaks of an electron–hole pair without considering excitonic effects. It is very important to take excitonic effects into account when we study the optical absorption for disc-like QDs. We may observe the excitonic effect induced by the external electric field.