Optical bistability in subwavelength slit apertures containing nonlinear media -: art. no. 081402

We develop a self-consistent method to study the optical response of metallic gratings with nonlinear media embedded within their subwavelength slits. An optical Kerr nonlinearity is considered. Due to the large E fields associated with the excitation of the transmission resonances appearing in this type of structure, moderate incoming fluxes result in drastic changes in the transmission spectra. Importantly, optical bistability is obtained for certain ranges of both flux and wavelength.