Low-threshold optical bistability in metal-nonlinear dielectric multilayer nanostructure

We numerically investigate the optical bistability with highly confined surface plasmon polaritons (SPPs) modes excitation in a metal-nonlinear dielectric multilayer nanostructure. We find that the field distribution forms a standing wave through the excitation of coupled SPPs in nanomultilayers caused by the Fabry-Perot interferometer. In addition, the average field amplitude is increased by a factor of ∼20.6 compared to that of the incident beam. A very low bistability threshold of 2.75 MW/cm2 is obtained with a fundamental SPPs mode excitation at the telecommunication wavelength of 1550 nm