Optical bistability in gap-plasmon metasurfaces in consideration of classical nonlocal effects

Optical bistability of linear reflectance and third-harmonic generation is investigated in a metasurface consisting of metallic grating coupled with metallic film spaced with nonlinear dielectric material. Linear optical reflectance and electric field enhancement are achieved for gaps <20 nm in the presence of classical nonlocality in metallic nanostructures. Enlarged thresholds from the higher to lower reflectance states are observed from 140 kW/cm² for the local model to 300 kW/cm² for the nonlocal model for 0.5-nm gaps. Though the linear reflectance almost overlaps for local and nonlocal models for 20-nm gaps, the optical bistability hysteresis loops retain large differences because local field differences are amplified owing to the relation of nonlinear refraction with square of local field and historical evolution of the optical bistability.