  We investigate a simple variation of the series RLC circuit in which
anti-parallel diodes replace the resistor. This results in a damped harmonic
oscillator with a nonlinear damping term that is maximal at zero current and
decreases with an inverse current relation for currents far from zero. A set of
nonlinear differential equations for the oscillator circuit is derived and
integrated numerically for comparison with circuit measurements. The agreement
is very good for both the transient and steady-state responses. Unlike the
standard RLC circuit, the behavior of this circuit is amplitude dependent. In
particular for the transient response the oscillator makes a transition from
under-damped to over-damped behavior, and for the driven oscillator the
resonance response becomes sharper and stronger as drive source amplitude
increases. The equipment is inexpensive and common to upper level physics labs.
