An Investigation of the Effect of Embedded Gold Nanoparticles in Different Geometric Shapes on the Directivity of THz Photoconductive Antennas

Abstract

This study aims to show how Terahertz (THz) Photoconductive Antennas (PCAs) affect the radiation directivity when gold nanoparticles of various geometric shapes are embedded in the gap region between the electrodes of THz PCAs. Three different PCAs, in the frequency range of 0.1 to 2 THz, conventional and after the addition of cylindrical, triangular, square, and hexagonal geometric gold nanoparticles to the antenna gap region between the electrodes, were built and simulated. The antenna directivity increased from 4.71 dBi to 4.92 dBi when square nanoparticles were added to the bowtie PCA, from 4.33 dBi to 4.45 dBi when triangular nanoparticles were added to the dipole PCA, and from 7.18 dBi to 7.52 dBi when square nanoparticles were added to the Vivaldi PCA.