QUANTUM BATTERIES:

A GREENER FUTURE FOR OUR PLANET

Every day we speak about the climate changes, that turning our lives upside down. Now is time to change and
find new solutions for solve this important problem. One of this is the energy.
But perhaps there is a solution and this are the quantum batteries.

In Italy, in the last two years, at the university Politecnico di Milano, a

group of international researchers work together for the develop of this
type of batteries. This project is «The study Superabsorption in an
organic microcavity: towards a quantum battery”. Quantum batteries
has a recharging time inversely related to the amount of energy stored,
with possible applications for devices such as wireless chargers, solar
cells and cameras. They can have also a incredible energy capacity but
we will see it later.
Two of them are Giulio Cerullo and Tersilla Virgili, who collaborated together in this project. They have shown
that it is possible to fabricate a type of quantum battery where the charging power increases faster by
increasing the battery capacity.

Dr Tersilla explains that quantum batteries exhibit a counter-

intuitive property in which the charging time is inversely related
to the battery capacity, so the amount of electrical charge
Tersilla Virgili Giulio Cerullo
stored. This leads to the intriguing idea that the charging power
of quantum batteries is super-extensive, meaning that it
increases faster with battery size.
 THE DEVICE
Giulio Cerullo explains that the device fabricated by the researchers is a microcavity in which the
active material consists of organic molecules dispersed in an inert matrix: "Each molecule
represents a unit that can exist in a state of quantum superposition of two energy levels
( fundamental and excited), similar to the way a qubit, the basic unit of quantum information,
can be both 0 and 1 at the same time in quantum computers".
By constructing the quantum battery in a way where units can exist in superposition, the total
system can then behave collectively. This behavior, known as 'quantum coherence', allows the
units to act cooperatively, resulting in a hyper-fast charge that depends on the number of
molecule-units.
 THE SUPER ABSORPTION
The reverse process, super absorption, "is more difficult to demonstrate due to the challenges of ultrafast probing
processes and has only been observed for a small number of atoms. Its central idea - superextensive scaling of
absorption, which it means larger systems absorb faster – it's also the key idea behind quantum batteries.“
In the process of constructing the superfast quantum battery, a paradigmatic model of a quantum battery was
experimentally implemented, built with the microcavity enclosing a molecular dye. Ultra-fast optical spectroscopy
enabled researchers to observe charge dynamics with femtosecond resolution to demonstrate super-extended charge
rates and storage capacities, in agreement with theoretical modeling.
 THE POSSIBLE USES
The quantum battery idea could have a significant impact on renewable energy capture and storage, and in
miniature electronic devices. At the University of Adelaide they recall that «By 2040, the energy consumed by
people is expected to increase by 28% compared to 2015 levels. Most of the energy will still come from fossil fuels
with a great cost to the environment. A battery that can simultaneously collect and store light energy would
provide a significant cost reduction by reducing the unpredictability of energy from solar technologies.“
The next step is to develop a fully functional quantum battery prototype.
I know and a lot of people know that this is the right way for a better future.
THE END