Abstract

We propose a scheme for the coupler-free excitation of surface polaritonic solitons and breathers in a planar plasmonic waveguide structure comprising a transparent layer, a metal layer, and a layer of a three-level lambda-type atomic medium. In the proposed system, an enhanced Kerr nonlinearity is achieved via electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT) in the bottom atomic medium, which can be controlled through proper modulation of the frequency detunings and Rabi frequencies of the driving laser fields. This nonlinearity balances the dispersion in the system, thus providing the necessary condition for the excitation of polaritonic solitons in the proposed system. As a result, the system yields laterally self-trapped bright and dark surface polaritonic solitons that are tightly guided at the interface of the metal and the EIT medium. Furthermore, we investigate the excitation of surface polaritonic Akhmediev breathers at the metal-EIT medium interface in the proposed system. A stable propagation of the surface polaritonic Akhmediev breathers is achieved with the proper choice of parameters in the proposed planar plasmonic waveguide structure. This experimentally feasible scheme could be significant in the development of highly compact nanophotonic devices in the optical regime.

© 2019 Optical Society of America

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