Flexible and Transparent Photovoltaic-Based Broadband Photocommunication Window

Smart buildings and near-zero-energy buildings require building integrated photovoltaic systems to minimize energy consumption and achieve photocommunication. Windows can be the next replaceable entity in smart buildings with smart photocommunication windows. It can provide a novel means of wireless and secured communication. The transparent photovoltaics (TPV) based photocommunication window can also produce on-site power to provide power to run applications of internet of things. A TPV device can be used as the receiver to collect the encoded signals, and its physical flexibility is imperative to its installation on any curved surfaces. In this work, a Ga₂O₃/Cu₂O heterojunction-based flexible TPV (FTPV) that acts as a photocommunication window to sense Morse code-embedded photosignals is developed and power is produced. The FTPV provides a high open-circuit voltage of 613 mV with an average visible transmittance of 52.3%. The device is capable of detecting broadband photoresponses in the range from UV to NIR. The FTPV also remains highly robust after a number of cycles of bending and continues to record Morse code signals over a wide range of broadband photosignals. It also has an ultra-UV-blocking feature that makes it suitable for use to prevent chronic diseases caused by exposure to UV radiation.