Abstract
We show the possibility to generate bright and dark optical solitons based on bound-to-bound intersubband transitions in an asymmetric three-coupled quantum well structure. By presenting the concept of detuning management, we show that the bright optical soliton can evolve into a dark one by adiabatically changing the corresponding one- and two-photon detunings. With adjustable carrier frequencies within the terahertz regime, we also demonstrate numerically shape-recovered collisions of two solitons in our proposed quantum wells. The present investigation may provide research opportunities in nonlinear optical experiments and may have impact on the technology for the design of semiconductor devices. © 2009 The American Physical Society.