Angular Sensitivity of VHF-Band CNT Antenna

A carbon nanotube (CNT)-based antenna detects incoming electromagnetic waves based on electrically induced mechanical vibration. In this study, we perform an analysis of the angular sensitivity of a CNT-based antenna. To analyze the mechanical vibration, we introduce a simple model using the image charge method. The analysis shows that the angular sensitivity depends on |sin²θ|, where θ is the angle of arrival. This is clearly different from the traditional Hertzian dipole detector, whose sensitivity varies with |sinθ|. In addition, the full width at half maximum of the angular sensitivity distribution for the CNT-based antenna is 0.36 π, which is smaller than the value of 0.5 π for a Hertzian dipole detector.