Observation of Asymmetric Transport in Structures with Active Nonlinearities

N. Bender, S. Factor, J. D. Bodyfelt, H. Ramezani, D. N. Christodoulides, F. M. Ellis, and T. Kottos

Phys. Rev. Lett. 110, 234101 – Published 4 June 2013

Abstract

A mechanism for asymmetric transport which is based on parity-time-symmetric nonlinearities is presented. We show that in contrast to the case of conservative nonlinearities, an increase of the complementary conductance strength leads to a simultaneous increase of asymmetry and transmittance intensity. We experimentally demonstrate the phenomenon using a pair of coupled Van der Pol oscillators as a reference system, each with complementary anharmonic gain and loss conductances, connected to transmission lines. An equivalent optical setup is also proposed.

Received 13 October 2012

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.110.234101

Authors & Affiliations

N. Bender¹, S. Factor¹, J. D. Bodyfelt^1,2, H. Ramezani¹, D. N. Christodoulides³, F. M. Ellis¹, and T. Kottos¹

¹Department of Physics, Wesleyan University, Middletown, Connecticut 06459, USA
²Electroscience Laboratory, Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio 43212, USA
³College of Optics & Photonics-CREOL, University of Central Florida, Orlando, Florida 32816, USA