Rather than using the transfer of ions of lithium, sodium or lead to generate power, the quantum battery stores the energy from photons. These can charge almost instantaneously thanks to quantum effects such as entanglement and superabsorption. They will not power electric vehicles any time soon, but could be used for quantum communications and might improve the efficiency of solar cells. They could even be used in parallel for small electronic devices, and researchers in Italy in February compiled a detailed table of the materials that could be used to build them (see below).
The quantum battery was first proposed in 2013 by Robert Alicki of the University of Gdańsk in Poland and Mark Fannes of KU Leuven in Belgium but so far, there are only proof-of-concept demonstrations. The idea is that entangled photons can store small amounts of energy for a short period of time. This can be done in organic materials in a microcavity, or in supercooled materials, and can potentially be scaled up to work as practical batteries.
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