Evolution of surface plasmon–polariton wave in a thin metal film: The modulation‐instability effect

Abstract

The modulation instability development of intensive surface plasmon-polariton waves in a thin metal film is studied. It is shown both analytically and numerically that the modulation-instability effect can give rise to spatial redistribution and longitudinal localization of surface plasmonpolariton wave energy on the subwavelength scale. Analytical expressions for the driving parameters of the modulation instability process − nonlinearity and dispersion − are derived. The impact of the film thickness and dielectric permittivities of constituents on the dynamics of surface plasmon-polariton wave transformation is considered. Numerical simulations show that in the layer structure comprising a silver film of subwavelength thickness a train of subpicosecond optical pulses with high repetition rate can be generated.

Modulation instability of surface plasmon polaritons in graphene double-layer structure

“…Propagation of the modulated wave in an optical waveguide [2] is one of the most illustrative cases of MI developed in the systems described by the nonlinear Schrödinger equation. The similar processes could be observed for the surface plasmon polaritons (SPPs) in plasmonic structures [3][4][5][6]. The nonlinear response can be extremely enhanced if a graphene-dielectric heterostucture is used [7][8][9].…”

THz pulse train generation through ultrafast development of surface plasmon-polariton modulation instability

“…for a given frequency domain, any weak time-periodic modulation of the steadystate SPP wave increases with a certain increment dependent on both the wave intensity I and modulation frequency Ω. The modulation gain for weak periodic perturbations is determined by the GVD β 2 and Kerr nonlinearity γ [8,23]:…”

Spatio-temporal modulation instability of surface plasmon polaritons in graphene-dielectric heterostructure

“…They have shown that the weak perturbations due to MI can grow fast such that the SPPs are transformed to the pulse trains [41]. S. G. Moiseev et al have also indicated the dependence of MI gain on the nonlinearity in a dielectric-metal-dielectric structure [42]. Despite all that, the process of MI has not been contemplated in a graphene-based plasmonic waveguide neither for spatial nor for its temporal feature.…”