"The electronic diode is a device that allows current to travel in one direction but not the other. That makes them handy things to have around. So handy, in fact, that you'd be hard pressed to find an electronic device that doesn't contain one. It's no exaggeration to say they have become one of the fundamental building blocks of the modern world.
"Physicists have known for some time that it is possible to make diode-like devices for electromagnetic waves. The mathematics of electromagnetic wave propagation suggests that certain types of material should allow polarized waves to pass in one direction but not the other when bathed in a magnetic field. Engineers can readily build such a device but its effect is what physicists call linear, meaning that the amount of light you get out is proportional to the amount you put in."
Physics arXiv: the Physics arXiv Blog
EM Wave Analog of Electronic Diode
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