Scientists have built a quantum battery that could make charging almost instant.
Australian researchers have achieved a major milestone in energy storage by designing and testing what is believed to be the world’s first proof-of-concept quantum battery.
Scientists say this emerging technology could reshape how energy is stored and delivered, potentially leading to devices that charge at extremely high speeds.
First Quantum Battery Breakthrough
The project was led by CSIRO in partnership with the University of Melbourne and RMIT, with the findings published in Nature Light: Science & Applications. Researchers from the University of Melbourne, including Associate Professor James Hutchison and Professor Trevor Smith, played key roles in the work.
“Similar to conventional batteries, quantum batteries charge, store, and discharge energy. But while everyday batteries rely on chemical reactions, quantum batteries leverage properties of quantum mechanics,” Associate Professor Hutchison said.
“The advantage of quantum is that the system absorbs light in a single, giant ‘super absorption’ event and this charges the battery faster.”
Ultrafast Laser Experiments Confirm Charging Speed
To verify the prototype’s performance, the team conducted experiments at the University’s Ultrafast Laser Laboratory in the School of Chemistry. Using advanced spectroscopy methods, they were able to observe and confirm the system’s rapid charging behavior.
“The unique capabilities of our Ultrafast Laser Lab, including dual femtosecond laser amplifiers and tunable optical parametric amplifiers, were critical in enabling us to record ultrafast signals over orders of magnitude in time,” Professor Smith said.
Quantum Energy Storage and Future Applications
The results provide an early look at how quantum-based energy storage could power future technologies.
Dr. James Quach, quantum science and technologies science leader at CSIRO, led the team that built the prototype.
“The research and proof-of-concept validates the exciting potential of quantum batteries to achieve rapid, scalable charging and energy storage at room temperature, laying the groundwork for next-gen energy solutions,” Dr. Quach said.
“Our findings confirm a fundamental quantum effect that’s completely counterintuitive: quantum batteries charge faster as they get large.
“While there’s still much work to be done in quantum battery research, we’ve made an important move towards realizing the possibilities. The next step right now for quantum batteries is extending their energy storage time.”
Reference: “Superextensive electrical power from a quantum battery” by Kieran Hymas, Jack B. Muir, Daniel Tibben, Joel van Embden, Tadahiko Hirai, Christopher J. Dunn, Daniel E. Gómez, James A. Hutchison, Trevor A. Smith and James Q. Quach, 13 March 2026, Light: Science & Applications.
DOI: 10.1038/s41377-026-02240-6
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18 Comments
What kind of output can we expect? How about leakage?
Warning 2….are u sure?? Il come for arvix
This isnt YOUR tech property of Vatican and grand priory of free and initiatied Yeoman
thanks for this
Thank God! I want one for my cell phone.
That would be amazing and for cars.
You’d think this could be used to harness short bursts of fusion energy output.
I want one too đ
You still have to put in at least as much energy as you hope to get out. (And hundreds of times as fast.)
We still havenât got commercially available solid state batteries so maybe we will see these in 30yrs
Its would change our livings.
I’ll believe that when I see it in stores. Until then, keep it going, sci-fi-tech-daily.
Typical Science article of today! …… explains nothing!
Instant charging of anything is physically impossible. Now, if you want to charge a 40KWH battery real fast, then you have to shove a far greater amount of power into the battery to get it to charge. So, if you want to charge a 40KWH battery in 6 minutes, you would need 400KW of capacity to support this kind of charge rate. If you want to charge the battery in 1 minute, that would take a capacity of 2.4 MEGA WATT !!!!! capacity. That is the power consumption of a medium sized town. Nope! Not going to happen.
Complete layperson here. But isnât your argument a little like saying a horseless carriage wonât work because it has no feet? Maybe this battery in the article bypasses typical battery charging rules? Again, Iâm just asking. Quantum rules seem to follow a different approach.
no. Homer’s scenario says: charging energy has to equal the energy in. 40 KWH in 6 minutes at 100% effieciency 400 KW for a tenth of an hour (6 minutes).
Couldn’t a unit of this be considered money if you could split it into a unit?
Let me guess, another amazing battery we as a consumer will never see because it won’t make a company infinite money and also would make us to independent -_-‘
Amazing how an article comes out with these wild ( and totally BS) claims every week, yet we never seem to see these things make it into production of real products!