UbiQD Receives $200,000 New Mexico State Grant to Prototype Room-Temperature Quantum Dot Single-Photon Sources

UbiQD, Inc. has received a $200,000 non-dilutive grant through the New Mexico Quantum Technologies Award, administered by the Economic Development Department New Mexico (EDNM) department via its Technology and Innovation Office (TIO). The state-backed capital finances optical test benches and cleanroom packaging at the company’s Los Alamos facility to prototype deterministic, fiber-coupled light sources designed for photonic quantum processors and optical quantum key distribution (QKD) channels. The initiative follows collaborative feasibility trials conducted under the Technology Readiness Gross Receipts (TRGR) initiative with Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), targeting single-photon emission from colloidal nanocrystals outside cryogenic refrigeration environments.

Linear-optical quantum computing architectures and quantum communications protocols require deterministic single-photon generation—emitting individual quanta on demand while suppressing multi-photon Poisson noise. Whereas epitaxial semiconductor quantum dots (such as indium arsenide) require liquid-helium cooling below 4 K to mitigate phonon-induced line broadening, UbiQD utilizes solution-processed I-III-VI semiconductor nanocrystals composed of copper indium disulfide. This chemical composition eliminates heavy metals like cadmium, lead, and mercury to comply with industrial safety mandates. Physical implementation focuses on integrating these colloidal dots directly into standard single-mode optical fiber assemblies, drawing on core designs protected under U.S. Patent 12,085,443 to bypass alignment-sensitive free-space optical routing.