Study of multilayer nonlinear dielectric-metal structures: Towards low power plasmon-solitons in realistic waveguides

To facilitate the experimental observation of plasmon-solitons, this work studies the propagation of one-dimensional nonlinear waves in layered planar structures made of a bulk Kerr type nonlinear dielectric, a linear dielectric buffer film and a metal film in contact with an external medium. Two complementary vector models based on Maxwell's equations is used to compute the nonlinear dispersion relation, the field profiles and the losses in those configurations. Moreover, a home made finite-element method adapted for Kerr nonlinear waveguides is utilised to verify the semianalytical results. Using these tools, the types and numbers of possible solutions according to the opto-geometric parameters of the studied structures are determined.