Infrared optical response of geometric diode rectenna solar cells

Abstract

Optical rectennas, consisting of micron-size antennas coupled to high speed diodes, operate by collecting electromagnetic radiation and converting the high frequency AC field to DC power. We report the demonstration of optical rectennas operating at a wavelength of 10.6 µm. The diode is a graphene device that relies on geometric asymmetry to provide rectification. It is coupled to a metal bowtie antenna 5.1 µm in length. The planar configuration of the diode gives it an extremely low capacitance, making it more suitable for high frequency operation than metal-insulator-metal (MIM) diodes. The theoretical efficiency limit of such devices exceeds the Shockley-Queisser limit, making them suitable for broadband optical operation, and in specific, for thermophotovoltaics.

The rectenna device: From theory to practice (a review)

“…The electrodes are placed on top of the thin film at both ends of the structure. The width of the neck, d neck , is of the same magnitude as the mean-free path length (MFPL) of the thin film material in order to obtain rectification [211][212][213][214][215] . Looking at Figure 28, an assumption is made by which charge carriers experience specular reflections at the boundaries 211 .…”

“…Carriers moving from the left to right either pass directly through the neck or collide against the angled edge and eventually channel through the neck [211][212][213][214] . On the right hand side, most of the carriers are blocked and reflected away from the neck by the vertical blocks [211][212][213][214] . The probability of electrons passing from the left to the right is enhanced over the probability of them passing from right to left due to the funnel-like construction in the forward direction.…”

“…Metals are suitable to be used 168 , however, their MFPL at room temperature is 10-30 nm 216 , which complicates the patterning process and requires expensive techniques such as electron-beam lithography. Graphene has been identified as a suitable and promising alternative to be used in geometric diodes [210][211][212]214,215 . Advantages of graphene are that the MFPL can be tailored up to 1 µm 217 which means that common lithographic techniques can be used for device patterning and fabrication, resistances are low enough to be matched to the antenna impedance 214 , and very low capacitance values of the order of 1 aF 212 lead to a low RC time constant of around 1.6 fs 211 .…”

Butterfly design mesh antenna of optical rectenna for S-band communication systems

“…The function of the high frequency low pass filter is: on the one hand, it avoids the harmonics generated by the Schottky diode; on the other hand, it performs the impedance matching between the antenna of the solar cell and the rectifier. On the other side of the conversion circuit, there is a DC filter whose principle is to ensure the impedance matching between the rectifier circuit and the resistive load, it is a low pass filter [19][20][21][22][23][24][25]. Single stage voltage multiplier, two stage voltage multiplier topologies and series topology, shown in Figure 10, are three different rectifier topologies proposed in this work.…”

Adaptive Ku‐Band Solar Rectenna for Internet‐of‐Things‐ (IoT)‐over‐Satellite Applications

“…The function of the high-frequency low-pass filter is as follows: on the one hand, it avoids the harmonics generated by the Schottky diode; on the other hand, it performs the impedance matching between the antenna of the solar cell and the rectifier. On the other side of the conversion circuit, there is a DC filter whose principle is to ensure the impedance matching between the rectifier circuit and the resistive load; it is a low-pass filter [22][23][24][25][26][27][28].…”