Theory of spatial optical solitons in metallic nanowire materials

I characterize the spatial optical solitons supported by arrays of metallic nanowires embedded in Kerr-type material. The array of nanowires is described using an effective medium model and is regarded as a continuous medium. I show that the conditions necessary for the formation of spatial solitons are radically different in presence of the nanowires. In particular, within the effective medium model, spatial solitons are allowed in the nanowire material only when the host material is a ``self-defocusing'' material. It is proven that the characteristic soliton beamwidth is related to the degree of hyperbolicity of the isofrequency surfaces of the photonic states and that a sufficiently strong electric field amplitude may enable subwavelength solitary waves.