Improving quantum-battery charging via unidirectional quantum jumps to metastable state

Abstract

In the process of charging a quantum battery, quantum jumps play a detrimental role because they induce transitions from higher to lower energy levels, leading to energy dissipation. This be- havior directly opposes the fundamental objective of the charging protocol, which is to increase the population of higher-energy states and store usable energy in the system. Furthermore, decoherence introduced by randomness of quantum jumps leads to a mixed state, thereby reducing the amount of energy that can be extracted from the charged quantum battery. Here, we propose a quantum battery comprising an ensemble of three-level atoms in the Λ configuration to store energy in the metastable state over a long time. We demonstrate that, when spontaneous atomic transitions are restricted to occur solely from the excited state to a metastable state, with decay to the ground state completely suppressed, quantum jumps acquire a constructive character. Under these con- ditions, they drive the quantum battery to a fully charged state, render the entire stored energy extractable, and shorten the duration of the second stage of the charging protocol.