In this paper, a graphene-based reflectarray antenna using ENZ (Epsilon-Near-Zero) metamaterial at terahertz (THz) band is proposed, and the performance of its unitcell is investigated. Then, the phase distribution and radiation pattern of the antenna are examined. Benefiting from exceptional complex surface conductivity of graphene which is a novel 2-d material, the size reduction of reflectarray has been facilitated as a result of plasmonic mode propagation within the structure which in turn leads to an increase in propagation constant. Moreover, tunneling phenomenon in ENZ material, a kind of metamaterial which has a relative permittivity under 1, helps reduce the loss. Taking advantage of these outstanding features of both materials, the proposed reflectarray is designed to function at 2.5 THz and is composed of 150×150 elements with square-shape configuration. We have achieved 40 dB of gain using the combination of graphene and ENZ material in reflectarrays, and also it is the first that time they are used together in the reflectarray. This work mainly focuses on the impact of using ENZ material and graphene simultaneously which is not done before, then the results demonstrate that it has a considerable effect on increasing the reflectarray gain.
2. Carrasco, E., J. A. Encinar, and Y. Rahmat-Samii, "Reflectarray antennas: A review," Forum for Electromagnetic Research Methods and Application Technologies (FERMAT), Vol. 16, 2016.
3. Headland, D., T. Niu, E. Carrasco, D. Abbott, S. Sriram, M. Bhaskaran, C. Fumeaux, and W. Withayachumnankul, "Terahertz reflectarrays and nonuniform metasurfaces," IEEE Journal of Selected Topics in Quantum Electronics, Vol. 23, No. 4, 1-18, 2017.
doi:10.1109/JSTQE.2016.2640452
4. Niu, T., W. Withayachumnankul, B. S.-Y. Ung, H. Menekse, M. Bhaskaran, S. Sriram, and C. Fumeaux, "Experimental demonstration of reflectarray antennas at terahertz frequencies," Opt. Express, Vol. 21, 2875-2889, 2013.
doi:10.1364/OE.21.002875
5. Alu, A., M. G. Silveirinha, A. Salandrino, and N. Engheta, "Epsilon-nearzero metamaterials and electromagnetic sources: Tailoring the radiation phase pattern," Physical Review B, Vol. 75, No. 15, 155410, 2007.
doi:10.1103/PhysRevB.75.155410
6. Massaouti, M., A. Basharin, M. Kafesaki, M. Acosta, R. Merino, V. Orera, E. Economou, C. Soukoulis, and S. Tzortzakis, "Eutectic epsilon-near-zero metamaterial terahertz waveguides," Optics Letters, Vol. 38, No. 7, 1140-1142, 2013.
doi:10.1364/OL.38.001140
7. Torres, V., V. Pacheco-Pena, P. Rodrıguez-Ulibarri, M. Navarro-Cıa, M. Beruete, M. Sorolla, and N. Engheta, "Terahertz epsilon-near-zero graded-index lens," Optics Express, Vol. 21, No. 7, 9156-9166, 2013.
doi:10.1364/OE.21.009156
8. Mousavi Roknabadi, S. M., A. Jafargholi, S. A. Mirtaheri, and M. Kamyab, "Easily implemented miniaturized ENZ metamaterial medium using spiral inductors," 20th Iranian Conference on Electric Engineering, Tehran, Iran, 2012.
9. Vakil, A. and N. Engheta, "Transformation optics using graphene," Science, Vol. 332, No. 6035, 1291-1294, 2011.
doi:10.1126/science.1202691
10. Carrasco, E. and J. Perruisseau-Carrier, "Reflectarray antenna at terahertz using graphene," IEEE Antennas and Wireless Propagation Letters, Vol. 12, 253-256, 2013.
doi:10.1109/LAWP.2013.2247557
11. Carrasco, E., M. Tamagnone, and J. Perruisseau-Carrier, "Tunable graphene reflective cells for thz reflectarrays and generalized law of reflection," Applied Physics Letters, Vol. 102, No. 10, 104103, 2013.
doi:10.1063/1.4795787
12. Biswas, S. R., C. E. Guti’errez, A. Nemilentsau, I.-H. Lee, S.-H. Oh, P. Avouris, and T. Low, "Tunable graphene metasurface reflectarray for cloaking, illusion, and focusing," Physical Review Applied, Vol. 9, No. 3, 034021, 2018.
doi:10.1103/PhysRevApplied.9.034021
13. Esquius-Morote, M., et al., "Sinusoidally modulated graphene leaky-wave antenna for electronic beamscanning at THz," IEEE Transactions on Terahertz Science and Technology, Vol. 4, No. 1, 116-122, 2014.
doi:10.1109/TTHZ.2013.2294538
14. Deng, L., Y. Wu, C. Zhang, W. Hong, B. Peng, J. Zhu, and S. Li, "Manipulating of differentpolarized reflected waves with graphene-based plasmonic meta-surfaces in terahertz regime," Scientific Reports, Vol. 7, No. 1, 10558, 2017.
doi:10.1038/s41598-017-10726-y
15. Chang, Z., B. You, L.-S. Wu, M. Tang, Y.-P. Zhang, and J.-F. Mao, "A reconfigurable graphene reflectarray for generation of vortex thz waves," IEEE Antennas and Wireless Propagation Letters, Vol. 15, 1537-1540, 2016.
doi:10.1109/LAWP.2016.2519545
16. Gonzalez, D. G., G. E. Pollon, and J. F. Walker, "Microwave phasing structures for electromagnetically emulating reflective surfaces and focusing elements of selected geometry,", Patent US 4905014, Feb. 1990.
17. Pozar, D. M. and T. A. Metzler, "Analysis of a reflectarray antenna using microstrip patches of variable size," Electronics Letters, Vol. 29, No. 8, 657-658, April 1993.
doi:10.1049/el:19930440
18. Hanson, G. W., "Dyadic Green’s functions and guided surface waves for a surface conductivity model of graphene," Journal of Applied Physics, Vol. 103, No. 6, 064302, 2008.
doi:10.1063/1.2891452
19. Novotny, L. and B. Hecht, Principles of Nano-Optics, Cambridge University Press, 2006.
doi:10.1017/CBO9780511813535
20. Pacheco-Pena, V., N. Engheta, S. Kuznetsov, A. Gentselev, and M. Beruete, "Experimental realization of an epsilon-near-zero graded-index metalens at terahertz frequencies," Physical Review Applied, Vol. 8, 034036, 2017.
doi:10.1103/PhysRevApplied.8.034036
21. Morabito, A. F., L. Di Donato, and T. Isernia, "Orbital angular momentum antennas: Understanding actual possibilities through the aperture antennas theory," IEEE Antennas and Propagation Magazine, Vol. 60, No. 2, 59-67, 2018.
doi:10.1109/MAP.2018.2796445
22. Silveirinha, M. G., A. Alu, B. Edwards, and N. Engheta, "Overview of theory and applications of epsilon-near-zero materials," Proc. URSI General Assembly, 2008.