volume | PIER Journals

Abstract

Recently, optical nano-antennas (NAs) have been introduced as an alternative approach for photovoltaics devices in solar power harvesting application. In this work, we introduce a new modification to the conventional Archimedean spiral NA to improve its radiation/harvesting efficiency and directivity. The proposed design is a rectangular spiral NA of two tip-to-tip opposing arms which are separated by an air gap. The reported design performance is investigated in terms of the radiation efficiency, directivity, polarization, radiation pattern and total harvesting efficiency. The numerical study is carried out using the finite integration technique (FIT) within the wavelength range 300-1600 nm. The presented design offers a maximum radiation efficiency of 88% in free space and 97.9% on top of silicon dioxide (SiO₂) substrate at a wavelength of 500 nm where the maximum radiation of the sun occurs. In addition, the proposed design has a maximum directivity of 10.8 in free space which is increased to 19.1 on top of a substrate at 500 nm. It is found that the suggested rectangular design shows an enhancement in the radiation efficiency and directivity over the counterpart Archimedean nano-spiral antenna by 10% and 208%, respectively. The proposed rectangular design introduces total harvesting efficiencies of 96.2%, 98.1% in free space and on the substrate, respectively. Moreover, the effect of round edges that may appear in the fabrication process is also considered.

1. Joshi, S. and G. Moddel, "Rectennas at optical frequencies: How to analyze the response?," Journal of Applied Physics, Vol. 118, No. 8, 084503, 2015.
doi:10.1063/1.4929648

2. Bagher, A. M., M. M. A. Vahid, and M. Mohsen, "Types of solar cells and application," American Journal of Optics and Photonics, Vol. 3, No. 5, 94-113, 2015.
doi:10.11648/j.ajop.20150305.17

3. Eldin, A. H., M. Refaey, and A. Farghly, "A review on photovoltaic solar energy technology and its efficiency," 17th International Middle-East Power System Conference (MEPCON’15), at Mansoura University, Egypt, 1-7, 2015.

4. Sabaawi, A. M., C. C. Tsimenidis, and B. S. Sharif, "Analysis and modeling of infrared solar rectennas," IEEE Journal of Selected Topics in Quantum Electronics, Vol. 19, No. 3, 9000208-9000208, 2013.
doi:10.1109/JSTQE.2012.2227686

5. Moddel, G. and S. Grover, Rectenna Solar Cells, Springer, 2013.
doi:10.1007/978-1-4614-3716-1

6. Mescia, L. and A. Massaro, "New trends in energy harvesting from earth long-wave infrared emission," Advances in Materials Science and Engineering, Vol. 2014, 2014.

7. Grover, S. and G. Moddel, "Applicability of Metal/Insulator/Metal (MIM) diodes to solar rectennas," IEEE Journal of Photovoltaics, Vol. 1, No. 1, 78-83, 2011.
doi:10.1109/JPHOTOV.2011.2160489

8. Di Garbo, C., P. Livreri, and G. Vitale, "Review of infrared nanoantennas for energy harvesting," International Conference on Modern Electrical Power Engineering (ICMEPE-2016), 2016.

9. Zhu, Z., S. Joshi, and G. Moddel, "High performance room temperature rectenna IR detectors using graphene geometric diodes," IEEE Journal of Selected Topics in Quantum Electronics, Vol. 20, No. 6, 70-78, 2014.
doi:10.1109/JSTQE.2014.2318276

10. Gadalla, M. N., M. Abdel-Rahman, and A. Shamim, "Design, optimization and fabrication of a 28.3 THz nano-rectenna for infrared detection and rectification," Scientific Reports, Vol. 4, 4270, 2014.

11. Vandenbosch, G. A. and Z. Ma, "Upper bounds for the solar energy harvesting efficiency of nano-antennas," Nano Energy, Vol. 1, No. 3, 494-502, 2012.
doi:10.1016/j.nanoen.2012.03.002

12. Yan, S., B. Tumendemberel, X. Zheng, V. Volskiy, G. A. Vandenbosch, and V. V. Moshchalkov, "Optimizing the bowtie nano-rectenna topology for solar energy harvesting applications," Solar Energy, Vol. 157, 259-262, 2017.
doi:10.1016/j.solener.2017.08.035

13. Hussein, M., N. F. F. Areed, M. F. O. Hameed, and S. S. A. Obayya, "Design of flower-shaped dipole nano-antenna for energy harvesting," IET Optoelectronics, Vol. 8, No. 4, 167-173, 2014.
doi:10.1049/iet-opt.2013.0108

14. El-Toukhy, Y. M., M. Hussein, M. F. O. Hameed, A. Heikal, M. Abd-Elrazzak, and S. Obayya, "Optimized tapered dipole nanoantenna as efficient energy harvester," Optics Express, Vol. 24, No. 14, A1107-A1122, 2016.
doi:10.1364/OE.24.0A1107

15. Sallam, M. O., G. A. Vandenbosch, G. G. Gielen, and E. A. Soliman, "Novel wire-grid nano-antenna array with circularly polarized radiation for wireless optical communication systems," Journal of Lightwave Technology, Vol. 35, No. 21, 4700-4706, 2017.
doi:10.1109/JLT.2017.2751674

16. Zhao, H., H. Gao, T. Cao, and B. Li, "Efficient full-spectrum utilization, reception and conversion of solar energy by broad-band nanospiral antenna," Optics Express, Vol. 26, No. 2, A178-A191, 2018.
doi:10.1364/OE.26.00A178

17. Elsaid, M., K. R. Mahmoud, M. F. O. Hameed, S. Obayya, and M. Hussein, "Broadband directional rhombic nanoantenna for optical wireless communications systems," JOSA B, Vol. 37, No. 4, 1183-1189, 2020.
doi:10.1364/JOSAB.383458

18. Ranga, R., Y. Kalra, and K. Kishor, "“Petal shaped nanoantenna for solar energy harvesting," Journal of Optics, Vol. 22, No. 3, 035001, 2020.

19. Balanis, C. A., Antenna Theory: Analysis and Design, John Wiley & Sons, 2016.

20. Kotter, D. K., S. D. Novack, W. Slafer, and P. Pinhero, "Theory and manufacturing processes of solar nanoantenna electromagnetic collectors," Journal of Solar Energy Engineering, Vol. 132, No. 1, 011014, 2010.
doi:10.1115/1.4000577

21. Wei, C., S. P. Lewis, E. Mele, and A. M. Rappe, "Reciprocity theorems and pseudoelectric fields for ab initio force calculations," Physical Review B, Vol. 55, No. 23, 15356, 1997.
doi:10.1103/PhysRevB.55.15356

22. Stutzman, W. L. and G. A. Thiele, Antenna Theory and Design, John Wiley & Sons, 2012.

23. Obayya, S., N. F. F. Areed, M. F. O. Hameed, and M. H. Abdelrazik, "Optical nano-antennas for energy harvesting," Innovative Materials and Systems for Energy Harvesting Applications, 26-62, IGI Global, 2015.

24. Soliman, E. A., M. O. Sallam, and G. A. Vandenbosch, "Plasmonic grid array of gold nanorods for point-to-point optical communications," Journal of Lightwave Technology, Vol. 32, No. 24, 4898-4904, 2014.
doi:10.1109/JLT.2014.2369493

25. Costa, J. R. and J. Guterman, "Introduction to antenna and near-field simulation in CST microwave studio software," IEEE Communication Society, Portugal Chapter, 2010.

26. Clemens, M. and T. Weiland, "Discrete electromagnetism with the finite integration technique — Abstract," Journal of Electromagnetic Waves and Applications, Vol. 15, No. 1, 79-80, 2001.
doi:10.1163/156939301X00661

27. "C. S. T. Studio Suite,", in ed: https://www.cst.com, 2016.
doi:10.1163/156939301X00661

28. Paul, L. C., M. S. Hosain, S. Sarker, M. H. Prio, M. Morshed, and A. K. Sarkar, "The effect of changing substrate material and thickness on the performance of inset feed microstrip patch antenna," American Journal of Networks and Communications, Vol. 4, No. 3, 54-58, 2015.
doi:10.11648/j.ajnc.20150403.16

Dr. Fatma Moawad Abdel Hamied

Prof. Korany Mahmoud

Dr. Mohamed Hussein

Professor Salah S. A. Obayya