Abstract
We study the nonlinear dispersion and coupling properties of the graphene-bounded dielectric slab waveguide at near-THz/THz frequency range, and then reveal the mechanism of symmetry breaking in nonlinear graphene waveguide. We analyze the influence of field intensity and chemical potential on dispersion relation, and find that the nonlinearity of graphene affects strongly the dispersion relation. As the chemical potential decreases, the dispersion properties change significantly. Antisymmetric and asymmetric branches disappear and only symmetric one remains. A nonlinear coupled mode theory is established to describe the dispersion relations and its variation, which agrees with the numerical results well. Using the nonlinear couple model we reveal the reason of occurrence of asymmetric mode in the nonlinear waveguide.