  A mechanism for asymmetric (nonreciprocal) wave transmission is presented. As
a reference system, we consider a layered nonlinear, non mirror-symmetric model
described by the one-dimensional Discrete Nonlinear Schreodinger equation with
spatially varying coefficients embedded in an otherwise linear lattice. We
construct a class of exact extended solutions such that waves with the same
frequency and incident amplitude impinging from left and right directions have
very different transmission coefficients. This effect arises already for the
simplest case of two nonlinear layers and is associated with the shift of
nonlinear resonances. Increasing the number of layers considerably increases
the complexity of the family of solutions. Finally, numerical simulations of
asymmetric wavepacket transmission are presented which beautifully display the
rectifying effect.
