Generation of 3.5-ps fall-time shock waves on a monolithic GaAs nonlinear transmission line

It is shown that nonlinear wave propagation on a monolithic GaAs nonlinear transmission line can form shock waves with fall time as short as 3.5 ps. An output fall time of 4.3 ps was measured for a single line driven at 15 GHz (20-ps fall time) while a cascade of two lines driven at 8 GHz (37-ps fall time) produced a 2-V wavefront with 3.5-ps fall time.>