Graphene-Based Current-Vector Control Method and Its Application to Continuous Polarization Reconfigurable Antennas

In this article, two graphene-based current-vector control methods are first proposed. The first method utilizes the resistive property of graphene to achieve directional absorption of electromagnetic energy, thereby controlling the current amplitude. The second method exploits the differences in absorption characteristics of multiple graphene sheets in various operational states to create potential differences and generate orthogonal radiation currents, thus controlling the current direction. Then two continuous polarization reconfigurable antennas are presented using the two current-vector control methods. The polarization mode of the antenna adopting the graphene-based current amplitude control method can be tuned between left-hand circular polarization (LHCP) and linear polarization (LP) continuously with a radiation efficiency exceeding 55% at 3.2 GHz. The reconfigurable antenna utilizing the current direction control method can achieve continuously full polarization reconfigurability at 1.6 GHz. By incorporating the first proposed graphene-interlayer structure, the radiation efficiency of the antenna is enhanced by over 88% compared to the antenna loaded with graphene directly. The two graphene-based current-vector control methods proposed in this article offer new approaches for reconfigurable antenna design and expand the application scenarios of graphene.