Davoyan, ArturShadrivov, IlyaZharov, AlexanderGramotnev, DmitriKivshar, Yuri2015-12-100031-9007http://hdl.handle.net/1885/52400We suggest using tapered waveguides for compensating losses of surface plasmon-polaritons in order to enhance nonlinear effects at the nanoscale. We study nonlinear plasmon self-focusing in tapered metal-dielectric-metal slot waveguides and demonstrate that, by an appropriate choice of the taper angle, we can effectively suppress the mode attenuation achieving stable propagation of a spatial plasmon soliton. For larger tapering angles we observe plasmon-beam nanofocusing in both spatial dimensions.Keywords: Nano scale; Nano-focusing; Nonlinear effect; Self-focusing; Slot waveguide; Spatial dimension; Surface plasmon polaritons; Taper angles; Tapered plasmonic waveguides; Tapered waveguide; Electric losses; Solitons; Waveguides; Plasmons201010.1103/PhysRevLett.105.1168042016-02-24