{"id":665221,"date":"2026-03-18T20:28:12","date_gmt":"2026-03-18T20:28:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/665221\/"},"modified":"2026-03-18T20:28:12","modified_gmt":"2026-03-18T20:28:12","slug":"this-may-be-the-worlds-first-quantum-battery","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/665221\/","title":{"rendered":"This May Be the World\u2019s First Quantum Battery"},"content":{"rendered":"

According to physicist Paul Davies, a tried-and-true \u201cquantum\u201d device exploits the odd rules of quantum mechanics<\/a> to deliver impressive, fairly practical results. And the latest installment in this quantum revolution is the world\u2019s first quantum battery\u2014a prototype for now, but one with a lot of potential.<\/p>\n

As a concept, quantum batteries were first proposed<\/a> in 2013; the idea was that a small quantum mechanical system could temporarily store and transfer energy. But this largely remained a theoretical pursuit until 2018, when an Australian team decided to actually build a working quantum battery. And now, eight years later, the researchers finally believe they\u2019ve found the right blueprint for scalable quantum batteries, publishing their findings in a recent study in Light: Science & Applications<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy ultimate ambition is a future where we can charge electric cars much faster than [fueling] petrol cars or charge devices over long distances wirelessly,\u201d James Quach, the study\u2019s senior author and a researcher at CSIRO, Australia\u2019s national science agency, said in a statement<\/a>. \u201cThe research validates the exciting potential of quantum batteries for unprecedented efficient and rapid energy storage.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cRadically different\u201d <\/p>\n

Unlike ordinary batteries, whose charging time increases with size, quantum batteries conversely take less time to charge the bigger they get. This \u201cradically different\u201d behavior is the product of collective effects in quantum physics, Quach explained in a column for The Conversation<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cUnder the right circumstances, the storage units of quantum batteries don\u2019t act individually but behave collectively,\u201d he wrote. \u201cIt is as if each unit somehow knows there are other units around, and their presence makes the unit charge faster. Strange, right?\u201d<\/p>\n

Realizing a concept <\/p>\n

The new prototype is a sort of metal \u201csandwich\u201d with multiple layers, each having different functions, such as capturing light, defining the battery\u2019s energy gradient, etc. An earlier iteration of the battery, which Quach\u2019s team demonstrated in 2022<\/a>, confirmed that, as theoretically predicted, larger quantum batteries do take less time to charge.<\/p>\n

The latest proof-of-concept added a layer to extract the energy from the quantum sandwich and convert it into an electrical current, Quach explained. The battery supports wireless charging with a laser and isn\u2019t as dependent on chemical resources as traditional batteries are.<\/p>\n

The team also used spectroscopy techniques to confirm that the sandwich acted like a battery, finding that the system stored energy for \u201csix orders of magnitude longer than it took to charge,\u201d the researchers said in the statement.<\/p>\n

Coming\u2026 not so soon <\/p>\n

It\u2019s worth noting that the current capacity of the prototype is a few billion electron volts. For context, the unit scale here is roughly equivalent to that used to refer to the mass of singular protons<\/a>\u2014so, we\u2019re talking extremely tiny. The battery also holds its charge for a few nanoseconds, which is also not very long.<\/p>\n

Quach is aware of this shortcoming, writing in his column that the team\u2019s next steps are to scale up the prototype and extend its charging longevity. Additionally, he noted that quantum batteries could be better for powering quantum devices, like quantum computers, rather than things like smartphones.<\/p>\n

That said, the feat is still impressive. Andrew White, a quantum physicist at the University of Queensland who wasn\u2019t involved in the new work, told The Guardian<\/a> that the proof-of-concept is \u201ca really nice piece of work showing that the quantum battery is more than an idea; it\u2019s now a working prototype.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe hope to create a hybrid design that combines the exceptional charging speed of the quantum battery with the long storage time of the classical battery,\u201d he said. \u201cThe progress we\u2019ve made is a testament to the century of theoretical work done by quantum scientists before us. Progress takes time\u2014but quantum batteries are certainly on our horizon.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"According to physicist Paul Davies, a tried-and-true \u201cquantum\u201d device exploits the odd rules of quantum mechanics to deliver…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":665222,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[25],"tags":[19979,492,18435,159,67,132,68],"class_list":["post-665221","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-physics","tag-batteries","tag-physics","tag-quantum-technology","tag-science","tag-united-states","tag-unitedstates","tag-us"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116252069443531695","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/665221","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=665221"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/665221\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/665222"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=665221"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=665221"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=665221"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}