Ultrafast and low-power plasmon-soliton switching based on two-dimensional MoS2 nanostructure

The nonlinear propagation in a plasmonic nanostructure composed of two closely molybdenum disulfide (MoS2) sheets is investigated numerically using perturbation expansion of Maxwell's equations. Because of the extraordinary nonlinear properties of monolayer MoS2, in particular significant Kerr effect, the production and propagation of dissipative plasmon-solitons in such a nanostructure is demonstrated. Considering the linear and nonlinear operation regimes, it is shown that by increasing the input light intensity, which leads to the appearance of the nonlinear correction terms in the MoS2 conductivity, the symmetry of such a coupler is breaking, and due to the change of the power coupling rate between two sheets, this nanostructure can operate as an all-optical nanoswitch. Compact dimensions and high nonlinearity of the proposed nanoswitch can provide us an ultra-high- speed and low-power switching operation. (C) 2017 Optical Society of America