Near-Field Microwave Imaging Method of Monopole Antennas Based on Nitrogen-Vacancy Centers in Diamond

Visualizing the near-field distribution of microwave field in a monopole antenna is very important for antenna design and manufacture. However, the traditional method of measuring antenna microwave near field distribution by mechanical scanning has some problems, such as long measurement time, low measurement accuracy and large system volume, which seriously limits the measurement effect of antenna microwave near field distribution. In this paper, a method of microwave near-field imaging of a monopole antenna using a nitrogen-vacancy center diamond is presented. We use the whole diamond as a probe and camera to achieve wide-field microwave imaging. Because there is no displacement structure in the system, the method has high time efficiency and good stability. Compared with the traditional measurement methods, the diamond probe has almost no effect on the measured microwave field, which realizes the accurate near-field imaging of the microwave field of the monopole antenna. This method achieves microwave near-field imaging of a monopole antenna with a diameter of 100 µm and a length of 15 mm at a field of view of 5 × 5 mm, with a spatial resolution of 3 µm and an imaging bandwidth of 2.7~3.2 GHz, and an optimal input microwave phase resolution of 0.52° at a microwave power of 0.8494 W. The results provide a new method for microwave near-field imaging and measurement of monopole antennas.