Optical Nano Rectennas – The new solar cell

Nano rectennas are nanoscale devices that collect light and produce dc power. Building on the strong foundations of antenna theory, a rectenna is constructed from a carefully designed antenna and an integral diode rectifier. At submicrometer wavelengths, the antenna must have nanoscale features, and with frequencies over 200 THz the diode must be extremely fast, a tunnel junction. Combining the two into fully functional, scalable, efficient devices is a challenge that has been taken up by many and has yet to be accomplished.

In our group we have designed and fabricated several types of antennas, including the dual-Vivaldi antenna, an ultra-wideband optical range antenna with scattering efficiency over 85%. Additionally, we have fabricated a variety of metal-insulator-metal (MIM) tunneling junctions from various materials (Au, Al, Ag, Ti, Ni, Pt, Ca) and measured their characteristics. Putting them together is our next goal. The size constraints and impedance matching are essentially conflicting, and creative solutions will be required.

nanorectennas

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