Thermal vapor quantum battery based on collective atomic spins

Abstract

Quantum batteries harness non-classical resources, such as quantum coherence and entanglement, to surpass the performance limits of classical energy-storage devices. Here we realize a room-temperature quantum battery based on a collective atomic spin ensemble in a thermal alkali-metal vapor, containing approximately $10^{12}$ $^{87}$Rb atoms with coherence times exceeding 110 ms. We operationally determine the battery capacity by directly measuring the extremal internal energies accessible under unitary evolution. This tomography-free protocol agrees closely with the conventional state-based definition and verifies the decomposition of capacity into coherent and incoherent contributions. We further show that quantum coherence can substantially enhance the storage capability independently of level populations, and experimentally establish quantitative relations linking battery capacity to von Neumann, Tsallis and linear entropies. By introducing a controlled dephasing channel with a magnetic-field gradient, we observe a monotonic reduction of capacity with coherence loss and track the corresponding evolution of the entropy-capacity relations. Our results identify thermal atomic spin ensembles as a scalable platform for quantum batteries and connect macroscopic quantum energy storage with operational quantum thermodynamics.