Graphene enabled nano-networks

With potential applications in such areas as industry, medicine and environmental protection, having networks of nano-machines has always been restricted by the physical limitations of antennae made from conventional materials like copper. Research at the Georgia Institute of Technology shows the graphene nano-antennae could be as small as a micron long and 10 to 100 nanometers wide, and will allow connections between devices using small amounts of scavenged energy. However, working examples of the nano-antennae have not been demonstrated yet and the application is based on modeling and simulation. Ian Akyildiz, a Ken Byers Chair professor in Telecommunications in the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology, said: "We are exploiting the peculiar propagation of electrons in graphene to make a very small antenna that can radiate at much lower frequencies than classical metallic antennas of the same size. We believe that this is just the beginning of a new networking and communications paradigm based on the use of graphene." "When electrons in graphene are excited by an incoming electromagnetic wave, for instance, they start moving back and forth," Akyildiz continued. "Because of the unique properties of the graphene, this global oscillation of electrical charge results in a confined electromagnetic wave on top of the graphene layer." The surface plasmon polariton (SPP) wave effect allows the nano-antennas to operate at the low end (0.1 -10 terahertz) of the terahertz frequency range, instead of at 150 terahertz required by traditional copper antennas at nanoscale sizes. For transmitting, the SPP waves can be created by injecting electrons into the dielectric layer beneath the graphene sheet. It is believed this technique can reduce the power requirements of the antennae by four orders of magnitude and thus enable nanomachines networks powered by energy harvesting.