Exact surface plasmon dispersion relations in a linear-metal-nonlinear dielectric structure of arbitrary nonlinearity

Abstract

Exact analytic expression for obtaining the surface plasmon (SP) dispersion relations in a system consisting of a thin metallic film sandwiched between a linear dielectric and a nonlinear dielectric of arbitrary nonlinearity is derived, based on a generalized first integral approach. The changes in SP dispersion relations on film thicknesses and nonlinearity are studied by model calculations. The thick-film limit generalizes previous results on metal/Kerr-type nonlinear interface to arbitrary nonlinearity. An analytic expression is obtained for the limiting SP frequency at large wave vectors with previous result recovered as a special case.