Batteries also have quantum superiority! Scientists propose new model for charging
Quantum computers are capable of solving computational problems that classical computers cannot. For example, Xanadu recently claimed that its quantum computer can do in 36 microseconds what it would take a supercomputer 9,000 years to do, realizing quantum computing superiority.
Similarly, batteries also have quantum superiority - "quantum batteries" are quantum mechanical systems used as energy storage devices. In March, the Institute of Basic Science (IBS) in Korea proposed a quantum charging technology that is theoretically 200 times faster than conventional battery charging.
Despite a number of theoretical achievements, experimental implementations of quantum batteries are still rare; finding new, more accessible quantum platforms that can be used as quantum batteries is clearly critical. Recently, researchers at the IBS Center for Theoretical Physics of Complex Systems (PCS), in collaboration with Giuliano Benenti (University of Insubria, Italy), revisited a quantum mechanical system that has been heavily studied in the past - the "micromaser "(micromaser), which has been extensively studied in the past. The related paper was published in Quantum Science and Technology under the title "The micromaser as a quantum cell" [1].
Two examples of "quantum phones", both charged by EMF-based quantum batteries. On the left, a charging protocol that does not use the micromaser method results in uncontrolled battery charging and can cause damage; on the right, a charging protocol based on micromaser is able to self-control the amount of charge deposited.
A "micropulser" (micromaser) is a system in which a beam of atoms is used to pump photons into a cavity. Briefly, the micromaser can be considered as a configuration similar to the experimental model of the quantum cell described above: energy is stored into an electromagnetic field, which is charged by a quantum stream that interacts with it in turn [2].
IBS PCS researchers and collaborators have shown that the characteristics of the micro-pulser make it an excellent model for quantum batteries. One of the main concerns when trying to use electromagnetic fields to store energy is that, in principle, electromagnetic fields can absorb a large amount of energy - possibly much more than is needed. To use a simple example as an analogy, this is equivalent to a cell phone battery that, when plugged in, continues to increase its charge indefinitely. In this case, forgetting to plug in the phone could be very dangerous, as there is no mechanism to stop the charge.
Fortunately, the team's numerical results show [3] that this does not happen in micro-pulses. The electromagnetic field rapidly reaches its final configuration (technically called steady state) and its energy can be predetermined and determined during the construction of the micro-pulse zephyr. This property ensures protection against the risk of overcharging.
In addition, the researchers showed that the final configuration of the electromagnetic field is in a pure state, which means that it does not introduce a memory of the quantum bits used during the charging process. This property is particularly crucial when dealing with quantum batteries: it ensures that all the energy stored in the battery can be extracted and used when necessary, without the need to keep track of the quantum bits used during the charging process.
Finally, it is shown that these attractive features are robust and will not be destroyed by changing the specific parameters defined in this study. This property is of obvious importance when trying to build an actual quantum cell, since imperfections in the build process are simply unavoidable.
Performance of the micro-pulser quantum cell. (a): stored energy (top panel) and purity (bottom panel). (b): comparison of the absolute values of the density matrix under the test, for the micro-veinzer (top panel) and non-micro-veinzer cases (bottom panel). This comparative plot demonstrates the superior performance of the micro-veinzer quantum cell.
Interestingly, in a series of parallel papers, scientists such as Stefan Nimmrichter [4] have shown that quantum effects can make the charging process faster in micro-veinze than in classical charging. In other words, they have been able to demonstrate the existence of the previously mentioned quantum advantage in the charging process of micro-pulsed Ze cells. All these results suggest that the micro-pulseze can be considered as a promising new platform for the construction of quantum batteries, a fact that drives the work to build new prototypes of quantum batteries.
To this end, researchers at IBS PCS and Giuliano Benenti are currently starting a collaboration with Stefan Nimmrichter and his collaborators to further explore these promising models. This new research collaboration will eventually enable the benchmarking and experimental testing of the performance of micro-pulse based quantum battery devices.
Reference links：
[1]https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/2058-9565/ac8829
[2]https://phys.org/news/2022-08-stable-quantum-batteries-reliably-energy.html#
[3]https://arxiv.org/pdf/2204.09995.pdf
[4]https://scholar.google.de/citations?user=qO1UFewAAAAJ&hl=de
