World's first quantum battery charges faster as it gets bigger

Researchers from the University of Melbourne, RMIT University, and CSIRO in Australia have developed the world’s first quantum battery prototype, which exhibits the unique property of charging faster as it increases in size. Unlike conventional chemical batteries whose charging time grows with size, this quantum battery leverages quantum effects such as superposition and entanglement to enable collective charging. Specifically, if a battery has N units, charging collectively takes only 1/√N of the time needed to charge a single unit, meaning doubling the battery size reduces charging time to slightly more than half. The battery consists of a multi-layered organic microcavity that traps light and is charged wirelessly using a laser, with advanced spectroscopy confirming its charging behavior. Despite this promising proof-of-concept demonstrating rapid, scalable charging at room temperature, the current quantum battery prototype stores only a minuscule amount of charge—on the order of a few billion electron-volts, insufficient even for smartphones—and retains it for just a few nanoseconds