Temperature as a bifurcation parameter in nonlinear electronic circuits

It is shown that temperature variations can bring about a series of bifurcations in the behavior of a nonlinear electronic circuit. For the semiconductor diode used in the experiments the increase of temperature above room temperature yields the period-doubling route to chaos, periodic windows, and a return to the ordered state. The most striking finding is that over the temperature range which is of general interest (i.e., just above room temperature) the temperature behaves as a genuine external control parameter of the system. We explain our observations by suggesting that the temperature is a scaling parameter of the applied voltage.