Researchers from Harvard University developed a graphene-based electrically-tunable plasmonic mid-infrared antenna array. They say this device can be useful for multi-analyte sensors, reconfigurable meta-surfaces and optoelectronics devices.
This is the first time nanoantennas can be tuned to the mid-infrared part of the electromagnetic spectrum by simply applying a voltage. This works because a graphene sheet, placed in the nanogap of a dipole antenna, acts as an electrically tunable nano-circuit element.
To create their prototype device, the researchers used CVD to deposit the large graphene sheet on a silicon-oxide layer. The nano-antennas were pattered directly on the graphene sheet.
Last month we reported about a new research that aims to develop graphene based micrometer-scale highs-peed short-distance antennas that could radiate electromagnetic waves in the terahertz band and would allow for high-speed information transmission.