Reconfigurable Terahertz Dipole Antenna with Integrated Graphene Sheets

The tunability of graphene’s surface conductivity attracts tremendous interests in electromagnetic applications. This proposing feature enables graphene one of the ideal materials for reconfigurable antenna designs. In this paper, a new dipole antenna with two integrated graphene sheets operating in terahertz frequency is proposed and its reconfiguration of radiation properties is investigated. The two graphene sheets are deposited at the feeding positions of the two dipole arms, which increases the tunable freedoms of the dipole antenna’s impedance up to two degrees. The tunable two-degree freedom of the dipole antenna enables antenna’s operating frequency reconfigurable in a wide frequency range from 0.65 to 1 THz, and total radiation efficiency change from 13% to 89% when graphene chemical potential is electrically tuned from 0 eV to 0.5 eV. At 1 THz frequency, the realistic gain can be tuned from 1.6 dB to -8.7 dB. The more than 10 dB difference of the realistic gain makes the dipole antenna switchable. The fancy reconfigurable properties of the dipole antenna can be applied for multi-functional wireless THz systems and beam-forming THz antenna arrays.