SimulationofGraphenebased

Nanoantennas

AnastasiaPantazopoulou
ap@ac.upc.edu

Introduction

Nanotechnologyisenablingthedevelopmentofdevicesina
scalerangingfromonetoafewhundrednanometers:
Atthisscale,novelnanomaterialsandnanoparticlesshow
newpropertiesnotobservedatthemicroscopiclevel.

Graphene(1)

Grapheneisaoneatomthickplanarsheetofbonded
carbonatomsinahoneycombcrystallattice.Itisthe
buildingmaterialof:
CarbonNanotubes(CNTs):Afoldedstripof
graphene(1991).
GrapheneNanoribbons(GNRs):Athinstripof
graphene(2004).

Graphene(2)

Grapheneisafirmcandidatetobecomethesiliconofthe
21stcentury duetoitsuniqueelectronicproperties:
Veryhighelectronmobility
>Veryhighspeedswitchingdevices.
Veryhighsensitivity(allatomsexposed)
>Newtypesofnanosensors.
Thermoelectriccurrenteffect
>Selfcoolingnanoelectronics.

Newopportunitiesfordevicetechnology:
nanobatteries,nanomemories,nanoprocessors,
nanosensorsandnanoantennas.

GraphenebasedNanoantennas
J.M.JornetandI.F.Akyildiz,GraphenebasedNanoantennasforElectromagnetic
NanocommunicationsintheTerahertzBand,inProc.of4th EuropeanConference
onAntennasandPropagation,Barcelona,Spain,April2010.

Graphenecanbeusedtomanufactureatomicallyprecisenanoscale
antennas,e.g.,nanodipole,nanopatch,etc.
ThereareseveralquantumeffectsthatalterthepropagationofEMwaves
ingraphene.
Forthis,weneedanewantennatheory.

WhyGraphenebasedNanoantennas?

The main property of graphenebased nanoantennas is that

the EM wave propagation speed can be up to 100 times
lower than in the free space or in conventional materials.
As a result, the radiation frequency of these antennas can
be also two orders of magnitude lower.
E.g.,fora1umlongantennathisfrequencyisinthe
TerahertzBand(0.110THz).

Simulation

TherearenoEMsimulationtoolswhichare
abletosimultaneously:
Simulatenanoscaleantennas.
Includegrapheneintheirmateriallibraries.

Simulationtools

Graphenesimulator
Atomistixtoolkit(ATK)

Antennasimulators
CST
HFSS
IE3D
Sonnet
EMPro
AXIEM

Atomistixtoolkit(ATK)

Computeselectronicstructureandtransport
propertiesofnanoscalestructures:
E.g.nanotubes,graphenenanoribbons,molecular
electronicsdevices,magnetictunneljunctionsandother
magneticsystem,interfacestructures,nanowires,etc.

Thecalculationsarebasedon:
Densityfunctionaltheory(DFT)
ExtendedHuckeltheory
Classicalpotentials
NonequilibriumGreen'sfunction

WhynotATK?

ATKisanelectronicsimulationtool
butultimatelyweneedanEMfieldsolver.
ItiseasiertoadaptanEMfieldsolvertouse
graphene,ratherthanimplementingafieldsolver
inanelectronicsimulationtool.

CSTMicrowavestudio

CSTisaEMsimulationtoolforclassicalEM
analysis:
Enablesthefastandaccurateanalysisofhigh
frequency(HF)devicessuchasantennas
Offersanumberofdifferentsolverfordifferenttypes
ofapplication

butitdoesnothaveamodelforgraphene.

DefininggrapheneinCST

Therearesomeapproximateconductivity
modelsforgraphenewhichwecanuse:
Complexpermittivitymodel
(accountsforintrabandandinterbandtransistionsofelectrons)
Gusynin,V.P.,Sharapov,S.G.,andCarbotte,J.P.,ACconductivityofgraphene:
fromtightbindingmodelto2+1dimensionalquantumelectrodynamics,
InternationalJournalofModernPhysicsB,vol.21,pp.4611,2007.

Drudeapproximation
(onlyaccountsforintrabandtransitionsofelectrons)
Hanson,G.,DyadicGreen'sFunctionsforanAnisotropic,NonLocalModelof
BiasedGraphene, IEEETransactionsonAntennasandPropagation,vol.56,
pp.747757,2008.

NewMaterial(1)
Inordertodefinetheconductivityofgraphene:
First,weconsiderthecomplexconductivitymodelbyusingthenumerical
valuesobtainedwithMatlab fromthepreviouspapers.

NewMaterial(2)

Second,asanalternative,we
usetheDrudeapproximation
anddefinethegraphene
conductivityjustwith:
ThePlasmaFrequency
TheCollisionFrequency

NewMaterial(3)

Grapheneisa2Dmaterial(itisjust
oneatomthick!)
butCSTcanonlysimulate3D
structures.
Forthis,wedefinegrapheneasan
anisotropicmaterialwithverylow
(~0)permittivityintheZaxis(the
thicknessofthematerial)

PatchAntenna

Consistsofthreeparts:
Groundplane
(PECmaterial)
Dielectric
Patch(Graphene)

GrapheneSheet

Results1:RadarCrossSection

Workinprogress

Results2:AbsorptionCrossSection

Workinprogress

Conclusions

WecanuseCSTtosimulategraphenebased
nanoantennas.
Weneedagoodmodelforgraphene.
Sofarwehaveusedsomeapproximatemodelsbutwe
needamoreaccuratemodelforgraphenenano
ribbons.

We will need to validate these results with

experimental measurements.
MaybewhenELCONAcomes?

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Thankyouforyouattention!
AnastasiaPantazopoulou
ap@ac.upc.edu

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