Research Summaries

Back Graphene based nano-cyclotron terahertz emitters for space applications

Fiscal Year 2021
Division Graduate School of Engineering & Applied Science
Department Physics
Investigator(s) Alves, Fabio D.
Sponsor Department of Defense Space (DoD)
Summary With the ever increasing access to space comes the inevitable crowding and increased risk of collisions. Cost efficient access to the THz spectrum (0.3 THz to 10 THz) could solve these problems by providing high speed close proximity data links for interorbital management as well as sub-surface imaging to inspect damage in the case of collisions. Despite advances in microwave and photonics technologies, communication networks applications in the terahertz spectrum still widely inaccessible of due to limits of physical form factor, environmental operating conditions, and cost of THz sources. Due to its extremely high carrier mobility over conventional materials and recent advances in manufacturing capabilities, a THz source made of graphene should provide a cost and form factor effective solution for THz communication networks. Unlike a THz graphene antenna, we propose a device that utilizes cyclotron emissions instead of field oscillations. Such a device can then be integrated with either microwave or optical stimulus without much reconfiguration. In this context, the objective of the proposed research effort is to study the possibility to manufacture graphene-based nano-cyclotrons as terahertz emitters and control the emission spectrum to the desired frequencies. The technical approach begins with modeling first principles approximations of a single nano-cyclotron with successive iterations of complexity until further simulation refinement is not computationally feasible. Once the simulations of a single nano-cyclotron have concluded, a similar effort will be conducted on arrays of nano-cyclotrons. Upon an optimal array design, efforts to fabricate the device will occur in-house and with collaborators. The devices will then be characterized in terms of spectral bandwidth and power output with existing THz sensor apparatus. For space applications this technology will provide low cost, environmentally robust, and compact form factor access to the THz spectrum. Evaluation metrics will be based on power, bandwidth, and special operating requirements over the state-of-the-art.
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Data Publications, theses (not shown) and data repositories will be added to the portal record when information is available in FAIRS and brought back to the portal