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The properties of surface plasmon polaritons which propagate in optically nonlinear or magnetic media are investigated. Expressions for the electromagnetic fields of a multilayer stack are derived by modification of the Fresnel reflection coefficients. Original research on prism-coupled, nonlinear, long-range surface plasmon polaritons, and on bound and prism-coupled, long-range surface magnetoplasmon polaritons in a transversely-applied magnetic field, is compared to previous research on single-interface plasmon polaritons. The reflectance from prism-coupled, nonlinear surface plasmons is analyzed using the infinite plane-wave approximation and a substrate nonlinearity which depends on the square of the transverse-electric field. Bistable switching requires incident intensities two orders of magnitude smaller for the long-range mode than for the single-interface mode. The regime in which the approximations are valid is shown to extend beyond that of first-order perturbation theory to guided waves that are very near cutoff. The sign and location of the nonlinearity become significant for these waves. For positive nonlinearities, nonlinear wave analysis indicates an additional branch of the reflected intensity curve, due to self-focussing of the guided wave. Positive and negative nonlinearities exhibit different switching intensities. The propagation constant of the long-range surface plasmon of a magnetic metal film is shifted by the application of a transverse magnetic field. The sign and magnitude of the shift are highly dependent on the metal thickness and the refractive indices of the bounding media. The shift is manifested experimentally as a resonant modulation of the reflectance from the prism-coupled surface plasmon due to changes in the angular position and width of the plasmon resonance. Experimental prism-coupling to the long-range surface magnetoplasmon in thin nickel films confirms the theoretical expectations for a wide variety of sample parameters. The phase of the magneto-optic coefficient is determined from the angular profile of the reflectance modulation. Although the shift of the propagation constant may be two orders of magnitude smaller for the long-range mode, the modulation signal is the same order of magnitude for long-range and single-interface magnetoplasmons.

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