Above-light-line Nonlinear Surface Polaritons near a Conductive Interface: Threshold Case

Abstract

We investigate the TM-polarized nonlinear surface polaritons (NLSP) propagating along a guided structure consisting of a magnetic optically linear medium and a non-magnetic optically nonlinear medium with saturable permittivity separated by a flat conductive layer of zero thickness. We consider those values of hosting media bulk material parameters for which the NLSP existence (for zero sheet conductance) has threshold character with respect to the waves intensity. Based on the exact solution of Maxwell's equations we show that the energy and propagation properties of the NLSP near the above-light-line condition (1 > n > 0) depend considerably on the surface conductivity of the layer, even the threshold character of the NLSP can be lost; for certain sheet conductance values these waves can exist in a linear limit. The NLSP propagation constant is defined by both the surface conductivity and field intensity and can be varied in a wide diapason, which gives an opportunity to obtain and control the important for quantum information processing 0 n  condition. For a chosen value of the NLSP propagation constant the NLSP field intensity and energy flux decries when the surface conductivity grows; saturation of the nonlinear permittivity leads to an increase of the NLSP energy flux compared with Kerr-like nonlinearity.

Keywords

• nonlinear surface polaritons; zero-refractive index materials; surface conductivity; magnetooptical metamaterials; saturable permittivity