Abstract-Graphene rectenna for efficient energy harvesting at terahertz frequencies

Mircea Dragoman1 and Martino Aldrigo1,a)
http://scitation.aip.org/content/aip/journal/apl/109/11/10.1063/1.4962642?TRACK=RSS
1 National Institute for Research and Development in Microtechnologies (IMT), 126A Erou Iancu Nicolae Street, 077190, Voluntari, Ilfov, Romania
a) Author to whom correspondence should be addressed. Electronic mail: martino.aldrigo@imt.ro
Appl. Phys. Lett. 109, 113105 (2016); http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.4962642

In this paper, we propose a graphene rectenna that encompasses two distinct functions in a single device, namely, antenna and rectifier, which till now were two separate components. In this way, the rectenna realizes an efficient energy harvesting technique due to the absence of impedance mismatch between antenna and diode. In particular, we have obtained a maximum conversion efficiency of 58.43% at 897 GHz for the graphene rectenna on n-doped GaAs, which is a very good value, close to the performance of an RF harvesting system. A comparison with a classical metallic antenna with an HfO2-based metal-insulator-metal diode is also provided.