Altering oscillatory dynamics of an electrochemical system using external forcing

We report results (numerical and experimental) indicating control of observ ed oscillatory dynamics in an electrochemical system under the influence of superimposed sinusoidal forcing. By varying the frequency and amplitude of the external forcing (control parameters) not only were the chaotic dynami cs converted to periodic states (controlling chaos via entrainment), but th e period-1 (P1) behavior could also be transformed to oscillatory dynamics of higher periodicity (for example: P2). Therefore for appropriate values o f control constants and nature of the unperturbed (periodic and/or chaotic) dynamics, a final state of either lower (chaos-->P1) or higher complexity (P1 -->P2) can be attained. Since no prior information regarding the system dynamics is required for implementation of the forcing control it is thus relevant for application to real systems. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science Ltd. Al l rights reserved.