A metasurface-enabled green-smart window for intelligent wireless communications with high visible transparency and low infrared emissivity

Abstract

Abstract New-generation windows require advanced multi-physics modulation capability to accommodate diverse functions, including optical transparency, thermal insulation, and wireless communication compatibility. In response to these demands, metasurfaces have emerged as a promising solution owing to their versatile and energy-efficient electromagnetic (EM) wave manipulations. However, the existing prototypes suffer from fixed functionalities and limited intelligence, restricting their practicality and sustainability. Here, we show a green-smart window based on programmable metasurface to simultaneously achieve high visible transparency, low infrared (IR) emissivity, and reconfigurable EM responses. By integrating a compact RFID (radio frequency identification) tag, three intelligent functions are remotely reconfigured in a self-powering manner: EM transmission enhancement, selective EM shielding, and polarization filtering. For verification, a prototype is fabricated to validate its visible-IR-EM multi-physics controls, remote-sensing range, self-powering capability, and thermal management. Indoor-to-indoor (I2I) and outdoor-to-indoor (O2I) communication scenarios are established, demonstrating significant improvement in communication quality by using the green-smart window.