The collision of the two surface plasmon polariton pulses at the interface between a metal and a dielectric with cubic nonlinearity is investigated. We reveal the possibility of the reflection of a weak signal surface plasmon from the strong pump plasmon pulse resulting in the time delay and spectral shift in the signal plasmon pulse. Using such an interaction, one can control the propagation dynamics of the signal pulse via the modulation of the intensity of the pump pulse.

• Received 2 October 2013

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevA.89.013850