This article has been reviewed according to Science X's editorial process and policies. Editors have highlighted the following attributes while ensuring the content's credibility: Quantum batteries, devices that store energy by exploiting quantum mechanical phenomena, could, in principle, be charged faster and more efficiently than classical ones. Despite their potential, connecting these batteries to chargers is known to create quantum correlations that can trap some energy inside the combined battery-charger system.
This can reduce useful work, or the energy available to complete a task that can be extracted from the battery alone. Researchers at the University of Insubria & INFN, University of Genova & CNR-SPIN and University of Milan recently proposed a new design strategy that could potentially increase the usable energy of quantum batteries. Their approach, outlined in a paper in Physical Review Letters, involves connecting both a battery and its charger to a shared environment that is continuously monitored.
"Quantum technologies—including quantum batteries—are usually designed under the assumption that the environment is the enemy," the authors told Phys.org. "Indeed, interactions with the surrounding world tend to destroy the delicate quantum properties, such as coherence, that are essential for achieving a quantum advantage. As a result, a great deal of research is devoted to isolating quantum systems as much as possible.
Our work was inspired by a simple question: What if the environment could be turned from an obstacle into a resource?" The authors explored the possibility of using a battery's interactions with its environment to enhance its performance and charging, instead of isolating it from its surroundings as much as possible. This idea represents a radical shift from how the environment is typically viewed in quantum engineering. "When a quantum battery is charged, it inevitably becomes intertwined with its charger through uniquely quantum connections known as quantum correlations," the authors explained.
"While these correlations are essential for transferring energy, they also create a drawback: Part of the stored energy becomes effectively 'locked' in the joint battery–charger system and cannot be fully extracted from the battery itself. Our idea was to exploit the environment to overcome this limitation." The researchers tested their idea theoretically using two quantum battery models. The results of their calculations suggest that coupling a quantum battery to an environment that is continuously monitored could significantly reduce undesired quantum correlations.
"As a result, a larger fraction of the stored energy becomes available for useful work," the authors said. "We demonstrated this theoretically by studying well-established quantum models of the battery, the charger and the (monitored) environment. "Surprisingly, we found that, under the right conditions, the presence of the environment does not degrade the battery's performance.
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