Excitation of nonlinear ion acoustic wave (IAW) by an external electric field is demonstrated by Vlasov simulation. The frequency calculated by the dispersion relation with no damping is verified much closer to the resonance frequency of the small-amplitude nonlinear IAW than that calculated by the linear dispersion relation. When the wave number $ klambda_{De} $ increases, the linear Landau damping of the fast mode (its phase velocity is greater than any ions thermal velocity) increases obviously in the region of $ T_i/T_e < 0.2 $ in which the fast mode is weakly damped mode. As a result, the deviation between the frequency calculated by the linear dispersion relation and that by the dispersion relation with no damping becomes larger with $klambda_{De}$ increasing. When $klambda_{De}$ is not large, such as $klambda_{De}=0.1, 0.3, 0.5$, the nonlinear IAW can be excited by the driver with the linear frequency of the modes. However, when $klambda_{De}$ is large, such as $klambda_{De}=0.7$, the linear frequency can not be applied to exciting the nonlinear IAW, while the frequency calculated by the dispersion relation with no damping can be applied to exciting the nonlinear IAW.
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