We address surface solitons at the interface between linear media and nonlocal nonlinear media in the presence of a discontinuity in refractive index at the surface of these two materials. We investigated the influence of the degree of nonlocality on the stability, energy flow, and full width at half-maximum of the surface wave solitons. It is shown that surface solitons will be stable only if the degree of nonlocality exceeds a critical value. We find that the refractive index difference can affect the power distribution of the surface solitons in the two media. Also, different boundary values at the interface can lead to different relative peak positions of the surface solitons. However, neither the refractive index nor the boundary conditions can affect the stability of the solitons, for a given degree of nonlocality.

• Received 20 September 2010

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevA.83.023817