P-polarized nonlinear surface polaritons near the surface of an epsilon-near-zero metamaterial with saturable permittivity

Abstract

We study p-polarized nonlinear surface polaritons (NLSP) propagating along the interface of an epsilon-near-zero metamaterial with saturable nonlinearity, very small negative linear permittivity and an optically linear medium. On the basis of the exact solution of Maxwell's equations, we investigate the relationship between the NLSP propagation constant and the NLSP energy flux for self-focusing and self-defocusing cases. In both cases, for the chosen value of propagation constant, calculations due to Kerr model lead to the lowest NLSP energy flux compared with the energy flux for metamaterial with saturable permittivity.