Fast Charging of Quantum Batteries Enabled by Decoherence

An international research team, led by a researcher from ZJU and another from IIT Gandhinagar in India, has developed a method to accelerate the charging of quantum batteries through controlled quantum decoherence. Published in npj Quantum Information, their findings introduce a universal approach that significantly enhances charging speed without relying on complex or restricted setups.

In quantum thermodynamics, a key goal is to exploit quantum effects to enhance the performance of quantum machines. For quantum batteries, quantum devices for energy storage, this has driven efforts to improve charging power and energy quality. However, many existing methods depend on restricted settings, such as specific dissipation models or specialized battery designs. A simple and widely applicable strategy for fast and stable charging would therefore be highly desirable.

The team addressed this by proposing a universal method using controlled quantum decoherence in the charger system. They discovered that an optimal decoherence strength enables fast battery charging by balancing the quantum Zeno effect, which freezes energy in the strong decoherence regime, and underdamped coherent oscillations in the weak regime.

This versatile approach applies to platforms like superconducting qubits and NMR systems, where decoherence strength can be precisely controlled. Their findings pave the way for faster and more efficient quantum energy storage systems, with broad implications for experimental research and practical quantum technologies.

Fig. 1: Schematic of charger-battery setup.

Fig. 2: Charging time as a function of decoherence strength.

This study was supported by the NSFC. Gentaro Watanabe from ZJU and B. Prasanna Venkatesh from IIT Gandhinagar served as the corresponding authors.

Rahul Shastri, Chao Jiang, Guo-Hua Xu, B. Prasanna Venkatesh, and Gentaro Watanabe, Dephasing enabled fast charging of quantum batteries, npj Quantum Inf. 11, 9 (2025).

https://doi.org/10.1038/s41534-025-00959-5