Improved Directivity of an OAM Antenna by a Fabry-Perot Cavity: An Experimental Study

Abstract

The circular phased antenna array is commonly used for generating waves bearing Orbital Angular Momentum (OAM) in the radio frequency band, but it achieves a relatively low directivity. To overcome this drawback, we present here a method to improve the directivity of an OAM circular phased antenna array by embedding it inside a Fabry-Perot cavity. The Fabry-Perot cavity contains three main parts: a partially reflecting surface (PRS), an air cavity and a ground plane. Simulation data show that the directivity of this new OAM antenna achieves an improvement of 8.2 dB over the original array. A prototype is realized and characterized. The simulated and measured characteristics are in good agreement.