Circularly polarized terahertz leaky-wave antenna with metamaterial scatterers

We propose a leaky-wave antenna to generate circularly polarized highly directional terahertz beam using metamaterial scatters. A microstrip line is loaded with a series of complementary electric-LC and electric-LC resonators to generate respectively E_x and E_y components. The 90⁰-phase difference and almost unity amplitude ratio of E_x and E_y are achieved by relative positioning of the resonators on and off the stripline and optimizing the gap size. Moreover, the phase front of the radiated wave can be adjusted to a specific direction by controlling the period of the resonator array. These highly directional planar antennas can be utilized in short-range THz communication, sensing and imaging applications.