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.