Current on an infinitely-long carbon nanotube antenna excited by a gap generator

The current on an infinitely-long carbon nanotube (CN) antenna fed by a delta-gap source is studied using a Fourier transform technique. The CN is modeled as an infinitely-thin tube characterized by a semi-classical conductance, appropriate for the frequencies of interest considered in this work. The CN's current is compared with the current on solid and tubular copper antennas having similar or somewhat larger radius values. It is found that for radius values on the scale of nanometers, CNs exhibit smaller losses than cylindrical copper antennas having the same dimensions, assuming the bulk value of copper conductivity. When one assumes a more realistic, reduced copper conductivity that accounts for the nanoscopic radius of the wire, the advantage of the CN over a metallic wire is increased.