We have investigated in detail the effects of the depth and range of the limiting potential, the quantum size parameter, temperature and hydrostatic pressure on the nonlinear optical rectification (NOR) coefficient in GaAs/GaAlAs parabolic quantum dots (QDs) with a tangent square potential. Firstly, we add the tangent-square potential of the system along the [Formula: see text]-axis to the original parabolic QD, and then the corresponding Schrödinger equation of the modified system can be solved to find the analytical forms of different splitting energy levels and envelope wave functions. Finally, the analysis and conclusions of the numerical simulations indicate that the above parameters have significant effects on the nonlinear optical properties of the modified system.