Nano-antennas, nano-transceivers and nano-networks/communications

Nanotechnology is enabling the development of devices on a scale ranging from one to a few hundred nanometers. At this scale, novel nanomaterials and nanoparticles show new properties and behaviors not observed at the microscopic level. In the future, networks of nano-devices will be a key component of almost every field of our society, with applications in biomedicine, environmental protection, entertainment, homeland security, and beyond. In order to enable nano-devices to communicate with each other, many fundamental challenges need to be addressed. As the functional devices shrink into nano-scale, design, fabrication and control of the systems impose novel design principles which greatly differ from that of the macro. Electromagnetic (EM) communication in the Terahertz (THz) band (0.1–10 THz) enabled by graphene-based plasmonic nano-transceivers and nano-antennas has been suggested as one of the possible approaches for communication among these devices. This Special Section in IEEE Access is dedicated to all aspects of nanoscale communications including transceiver and antenna design in addition to communication and networking solutions, as well as novel paradigm, e.g., Hybrid Molecular/EM communication systems