Multichannel asymmetric transmission through a dimer defect with saturable inter-site nonlinearity

Abstract

We consider the asymmetric transmission properties of a discrete nonlinear Schrödinger type dimer with a saturable nonlinear intersite coupling between the dimer sites, in addition to a cubic onsite nonlinearity and asymmetric linear onsite potentials. In contrast to previously studied cases with pure onsite nonlinearities, the transmission coefficient for stationary transmission is shown to be a multivalued function of the transmitted intensity, in regimes of low saturability and small or moderate transmitted intensity. The corresponding backward transfer map is analyzed analytically and numerically, and shown to have either one or three distinct solutions for saturable coupling, and zero or two solutions for the purely cubic nonlinear coupling. As saturation strength is increased, the multi-solution regimes disappear through bifurcations and the single-valued regime of the onsite model is recovered. The existence of multiple solution branches yields novel mechanisms for asymmetric left/right stationary transmission: in addition to shifts of the positions of transmission peaks, peaks for transmission in one direction may correspond to nonexistence of stationary solutions propagating in the opposite direction, at the corresponding branch and transmitted intensity. Moreover, one of these transmission channels behaves as a nearly perfect mirror for incoming signals. The linear stability of the stationary solutions is analyzed, and instabilities are typically observed, and illustrated by direct numerical simulations, in regimes with large transmission coefficient. Intersite nonlinearities are found to prevent the formation of a localized dimer mode in the instability-induced dynamics. Finally, the partial reflection and transmission of a Gaussian excitation is studied, and the asymmetric transmission properties are compared to previously studied onsite models.