Flared Monopole Antennas for 10-um Radiation

Planar flared monopole made of nickel is proposed as an antenna for the reception of thermal radiation. The antenna partially overlaps with a ground plane; the overlapping region is supposed to host a nickel–nickel oxide–nickel diode for conversion of terahertz fields into electrical current. The antenna performance is measured in terms of enhancement of the electric field at the diode terminals. The effect of geometrical parameters on the antenna performance is parametrically investigated. A crossed-antennas scheme is finally proposed for the improvement of performance with respect to the direction of incidence and polarization state of the incoming field.