Terahertz relativistic spatial solitons in doped graphene metamaterials

We propose an electrically tunable graphene-based metamaterial that shows a large nonlinear optical response at THz frequencies. The responsible nonlinearity comes from the intraband current, which we are able to calculate analytically. We demonstrate that the proposed metamaterial supports stable 2D spatial solitary waves. Our theoretical approach is not restricted to graphene, but can be applied to all materials exhibiting a conical dispersion supporting massless Dirac fermions. © 2013 IOP Publishing Ltd.