Observation of asymmetric transport in structures with active nonlinearities

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. © 2013 American Physical Society