Lithographically Defined Plasmonic Graphene Antennas for Terahertz-Band Communication

• Published in: IEEE antennas and wireless propagation letters Vol. 15; pp. 1553 - 1556
• Main Authors: Zakrajsek, Luke, Einarsson, Erik, Thawdar, Ngwe, Medley, Michael, Jornet, Josep Miquel
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York IEEE 2016; The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc. (IEEE)
• Subjects: Antennas; Conductivity; Dispersion; Graphene; Graphene plasmonics; Nano-antennas; Nanobioscience; Nanonetworks; Plasmons; Resonant frequency; Terahertz band; nanonetworks; terahertz band; nano-antennas; Graphene plasmonics
• ISSN: 1536-1225; 1548-5757
• DOI: 10.1109/LAWP.2016.2527001

Graphene-based plasmonic antennas could enable ultrabroadband communication among nanodevices in the Terahertz band (0.1-10 THz). Despite significant progress in graphene synthesis, the fabrication, manipulation, and placement of precisely formed graphene-based nanostructures still pose many practical challenges. In this letter, by comparing analytical solutions with numerical simulations, we show that lithographically defined graphene antennas, circumscribed by a focused ion beam (FIB), should behave as though they were electromagnetically isolated provided the width of the surrounding cut is comparable to the plasmonic wavelength. This result opens the door to practical and more advanced antenna designs.