Arrays of metallic thermocouples in the shape of spiral nanoantennas are proposed as infrared detectors, which use the thermoelectric properties of the metallic interfaces to generate electrical DC signals. The responsivity of these types of antennas is evaluated from both theoretical and numerical perspectives pointing out its potential as infrared sensors. Moreover, the same structures can be used to characterize the state of polarization of the optical near fields with a spatial resolution comparable to the wavelength.

Seebeck nanoantennas, which are based on the thermoelectric effect, have been proposed for electromagnetic energy harvesting and infrared detection. The responsivity and frequency dependence of three types of Seebeck nanoantennas is obtained by electromagnetic simulation for different materials. Results show that the square spiral antenna has the widest bandwidth and the highest induced current of the three analyzed geometries. However, the geometry that presented the highest temperature gradient was the bowtie antenna, which favors the thermoelectric effect in a Seebeck nanoantenna. The results also show that these types of devices can present a voltage responsivity as high as $36μV/W$ for titanium–nickel dipoles resonant at far-infrared wavelengths.

Parkinson’s disease (PD) is a progressive neurological condition that affects movement. The condition is due to the loss of neurons in the substantia nigra of the brain, which is the area responsible for the production of dopamine. This neurotransmitter is essential for movement. The loss of neurons causes a reduction in dopamine production, leading to the characteristic symptoms of the condition: tremors, rigidity, bradykinesia, and postural instability.¹ As of today, there is no cure for PD, but treatment that can provide significant relief from symptoms is available, and neuroimaging techniques can be used to monitor the progress of the disease and predict its severity. Therefore, the diagnosis of PD is based on the presence of these symptoms, together with a detailed history of the patient’s condition.² The Unified Parkinson’s Disease Rating Scale (UPDRS) is widely used for diagnosing PD.³ The criteria are based on tremor, rigidity, bradykinesia, and postural instability.

In this work, we report the fabrication of self-assembled zinc oxide nanorods grown on pentagonal faces of silver nanowires by using microwaves irradiation. The nanostructures resemble a hierarchal nanoantenna and were used to study the far and near field electrical metal-semiconductor behavior from the electrical radiation pattern resulting from the phase map reconstruction obtained using off-axis electron holography. As a comparison, we use electric numerical approximations methods for a finite number of ZnO nanorods on the Ag nanowires and show that the electric radiation intensities maps match closely the experimental results obtained with electron holography. The time evolution of the radiation pattern as generated from the nanostructure was recorded under in-situ radio frequency signal stimulation, in which the generated electrical source amplitude and frequency were varied from 0 to 5 V and from 1 to 10 MHz, respectively. The phase maps obtained from electron holography show the change in the distribution of the electric radiation pattern for individual nanoantennas. The mapping of this electrical behavior is of the utmost importance to gain a complete understanding for the metal-semiconductor (Ag/ZnO) heterojunction that will help to show the mechanism through which these receiving/transmitting structures behave at nanoscale level.

Printed circuit antennas have been used for the detection of electromagnetic radiation at a wide range of frequencies that go from radio frequencies (RF) up to optical frequencies. The design of printed antennas at optical frequencies has been done by using design rules derived from the radio frequency domain which do not take into account the dispersion of material parameters at optical frequencies. This can make traditional RF antenna design not suitable for optical antenna design. This work presents the results of using a genetic algorithm (GA) for obtaining an optimized geometry (unconventional geometries) that may be used as optical regime antennas to capture electromagnetic waves. The radiation patterns and optical properties of the GA generated geometries were compared with the conventional dipole geometry. The characterizations were conducted via finite element method (FEM) computational simulations.

Nanoantennas have been fabricated by scaling down traditional antenna designs using nanolithographic techniques and testing them at different optical wavelengths, these particular nanoantennas have shown responses in a broad range of frequencies going from visible wavelengths to the range of the terahertz. Some self-assembled nanostructures exist that exhibit similar shapes and properties to those of traditional antenna structures. In this work the emission and absorption properties of self-assembled nanostructures made of zinc oxide nanorods on silver nanowires, which resemble traditional dipole antennas, were measured and simulated in order to test their antenna performance. These structures show resonant properties in the 10-120 THz range, with the main resonance at 60 THz. The radiation pattern of these nanostructures was also obtained by numerical simulations, and it is shown that it can be tailored to increase or decrease its directivity as a function of the location of the energy source of excitation. Experimental measurements were performed by Raman spectroscopy and Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR) in order to show existing vibrational frequencies at the resonant frequencies of the nanostructures, measurements were made from ~9 to 103 THz and the results were in agreement with the simulations. These characteristics make these metal-semiconductor Ag/ZnO nanostructures useful as self-assembled nanoantennas in applications such as terahertz spectroscopy and sensing at terahertz frequencies.