  We show that asymmetric transmission for linear polarizations can be easily
achieved by a monolayer of anisotropic chiral metamolecules through the
constructive and destructive interferences between the contributions from
anisotropy and chirality. Our analysis is based on the interaction of
electromagnetic waves with the constituent electric and magnetic dipoles of the
metamaterials, and an effective medium formulation. In addition, asymmetric
transmission in amplitude can be effectively controlled by the interference
between spectrally detuned resonances. Our findings shed light on the design of
metamaterials for achieving strong asymmetric transmission.
