The development of high-performance optically transparent radio frequency (RF) radiators is limited by the intrinsic loss issue of transparent conductive films (TCFs). Instead of pursuing expensive endeavors to improve the TCFs’ electrical properties, this study introduces an innovative approach that leverages leaky-wave mode manipulation to mitigate the TCFs’ attenuating effect and maximize the RF radiation. Our finding reveals that the precise control of the mode confinement on glass-coated TCFs can create a low-attenuation window for leaky-wave propagation, where the total attenuation caused by TCF dissipation and wave leakage is effectively reduced. The observed low-attenuation leaky-wave state on lossy TCFs originates from the delicate balance between wave leakage and TCF dissipation, attained at a particular glass cladding thickness. By leveraging the substantially extended radiation aperture achieved under suppressed wave attenuation, this study develops an optically transparent antenna with an enhanced endfire realized gain exceeding 15 dBi and a radiation efficiency of 66%, which is validated to offer competitive transmission performance for advancing ubiquitous wireless communication and sensing applications.

中文翻译：

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光学透明有损薄膜上的低衰减 endfire 漏波状态


高性能光学透明射频 （RF） 辐射器的开发受到透明导电膜 （TCF） 固有损耗问题的限制。本研究没有追求昂贵的努力来改善 TCF 的电性能，而是引入了一种创新方法，该方法利用漏波模式操纵来减轻 TCF 的衰减效应并最大限度地提高射频辐射。我们的研究结果表明，对玻璃涂层 TCF 的模式限制的精确控制可以为泄漏波传播创建一个低衰减窗口，其中 TCF 耗散和波泄漏引起的总衰减得到有效减少。在有损 TCF 上观察到的低衰减泄漏波状态源于波泄漏和 TCF 耗散之间的微妙平衡，在特定的玻璃覆层厚度下实现。通过利用在抑制波衰减下实现的大幅扩展的辐射孔径，本研究开发了一种光学透明天线，其增强的 endfire 实现增益超过 15 dBi，辐射效率为 66%，经验证可为先进的无处不在的无线通信和传感应用提供有竞争力的传输性能。