Quantum batteries are energy storage devices that utilize quantum mechanics to enhance performance or functionality. While they are still in their infancy, with only proof-of-principle demonstrations achieved, their radically innovative design principles offer a potential solution to future energy challenges.
These correlations underpin the unique properties of quantum batteries. Quantum batteries are a redesign of energy storage devices from the bottom up. They are modeled with the simplest quantum energy storage system: a collection of identical qubits, which can be sub-atomic particles, atoms or molecules.
While research into these fascinating systems is still in its infancy, quantum batteries are poised to revolutionise energy storage as we know it by offering higher energy storage capacity, faster charging rates, and longer battery lifetimes compared to conventional batteries.
"Current batteries for low-power devices, such as smartphones or sensors, typically use chemicals such as lithium to store charge, whereas a quantum battery uses microscopic particles like arrays of atoms," explains Yuanbo Chen, a physics graduate student at the University of Tokyo.
Indeed, due to the fact that the energy variance is bounded by the multipartite entanglement properties of batteries composed of qubits, we establish a fundamental bound on power imposed by quantum entanglement. We also discuss paradigmatic models for batteries that saturate the bounds both for the stored energy and power.
"While chemical batteries are governed by classical laws of physics, microscopic particles are quantum in nature, so we have a chance to explore ways of using them that bend or even break our intuitive notions of what takes place at small scales," Chen says.