Clock Pulling Enables Maximum-Efficiency Wireless Power Transfer

Nonlinear parity-time (PT) symmetry in non-Hermitian wireless power transfer (WPT) systems, while attracting significant attention from both physics and engineering communities, have posed formidable theoretical and practical challenges due to their complex dynamical mechanisms. Here, we revisit multistability in nonlinear non-Hermitian systems and find that the PT-symmetry state is not always stable even in PT-symmetry phase. We report a discovery on a nonlinear clock-pulling mechanism, which can forcibly break the PT symmetry. Proper implementation of this mechanism can switch the system stability, particularly in stabilizing the conventional unstable state which has the maximum transfer efficiency for WPT. Our work offers new tools for non-Hermitian physics and is expected to drive technological progress.