Bistable phase control via rocking in a nonlinear electronic oscillator

We experimentally demonstrate the effective rocking [de Valcarcel and Staliunas, Phys. Rev. E 67, 026604 (2003)] of a nonlinear electronic circuit operating in a periodic regime. Namely, we show that by driving a Chua circuit with a periodic signal, whose phase alternates (also periodically) in time, we lock the oscillation frequency of the circuit to that of the driving signal, and its phase to one of two possible values shifted by pi, and lying between the alternating phases of the input signal. In this way, we show that a rocked nonlinear oscillator displays phase bistability. We interpret the experimental results via a theoretical analysis of rocking on a simple oscillator model, based on a normal form description (complex Landau equation) of the rocked Hopf bifurcation.