Open AccessUltrafast nonlinear dynamics of surface plasmon polaritons in gold nanowires due to the intrinsic nonlinearity of metals
Author(s) -
Andrea Marini,
Matteo Conforti,
Giuseppe Della Valle,
Lee Hw,
Tr. X. Tran,
Wonkeun Chang,
Markus A. Schmidt,
Stefano Longhi,
P. St. J. Russell,
Fabio Biancalana
Publication year - 2013
Publication title -
new journal of physics
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.584
H-Index - 190
ISSN - 1367-2630
DOI - 10.1088/1367-2630/15/1/013033
Subject(s) - physics , window (computing) , modal , nonlinear system , dialog box , plasmon , surface plasmon polariton , ultrashort pulse , optics , surface plasmon , quantum mechanics , computer science , laser , chemistry , world wide web , polymer chemistry , operating system
Starting from first principles, we theoretically model the nonlinear temporal dynamics of gold-based plasmonic devices resulting from the heating of their metallic components. At optical frequencies, the gold susceptibility is determined by the interband transitions around the X, L points in the first Brillouin zone, and thermo-modulational effects ensue from Fermi smearing of the electronic energy distribution in the conduction band. As a consequence of light-induced heating of the conduction electrons, the optical susceptibility becomes nonlinear. In this paper we describe, for the first time to our knowledge, the effects of the thermo-modulational nonlinearity of gold on the propagation of surface plasmon polaritons guided on gold nanowires. We introduce a novel nonlinear Schrodinger-like equation to describe pulse propagation in such nanowires, and we predict the appearance of an intense spectral red-shift caused by the delayed thermal response