Dipole Nantennas Terminated by Traveling Wave Rectifiers for Ambient Thermal Energy Harvesting

In this paper, rectennas formed from nanodipole antennas terminated by plasmonic metal-insulator-metal (MIM) travelling wave transmission line rectifiers are developed for ambient thermal energy harvesting at 30 THz. The transmission lines are formed from two strips coupled either vertically or laterally. A systematic design approach is presented, that shows how different components can be integrated with each other with maximum radiation receiving nantenna efficiency, maximum coupling efficiency between nantenna and rectifier, and maximum MIM diode rectifier efficiency. The tunneling current of the rectifier is calculated using the transfer matrix method and the nonequilibrium Green's function. A detailed parametric study of the coupled strips plasmonic transmission lines is presented and thoroughly discussed. The overall efficiencies of the proposed travelling wave rectennas are fully expressed and compared.