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UbiQD Wins $200,000 Grant for a Single-Photon Source
UbiQD has received a $200,000 New Mexico award to develop a quantum-dot light source that sends single photons directly into optical fiber. The Los Alamos company plans to use the grant for optical equipment, device prototyping and performa
Quantum.world Team · Written with AI · fact-checked ·
“New Mexico has the foundational science, and we have the infrastructure and team to turn decades of quantum dot materials development into products that accelerate the quantum computing industry.”
Hunter McDaniel, founder and CEO of UbiQD
UbiQD announced on October 28, 2026, that it had received a $200,000 award through New Mexico’s Quantum Technologies Award program. The funding, provided through the Economic Development New Mexico Department’s Technology and Innovation Office, will support development of a quantum-dot light source designed to connect directly to optical fiber and emit one photon at a time on demand. The company plans to carry out the work at its Los Alamos headquarters.
UbiQD’s first task is measuring photon output
The grant will pay for optical equipment and device prototyping. UbiQD says its team will first measure how reliably its quantum dots produce single photons, then refine the materials toward performance targets set by the industry. The announcement does not specify those targets or report measured performance for the device under development.
That distinction matters: the award funds development work, not a finished source. The company describes the intended device as a component for photonic quantum computers and quantum communication networks, where photons can carry information through optical fiber. UbiQD says its approach aims to combine room-temperature operation, tunable emission, fiber coupling and materials that avoid cadmium, lead and mercury.
A decade of quantum-dot work meets a new device effort
The project builds on a 2024–2025 partnership with Los Alamos National Laboratory through New Mexico’s Technology Readiness Gross Receipts Initiative. UbiQD says that work produced some of the first detailed measurements of its proprietary I-III-VI semiconductor quantum dots for single-photon emission. Senior Vice President of R&D Nikolay Makarov, the grant’s principal investigator, described the new stage as a move from materials development toward an optical product.
“Now we're using what we learned to build a light source that delivers one photon at a time, reliably, at room temperature,” Makarov said in the announcement. The company says Makarov co-authored a 2017 Los Alamos study showing that copper indium disulfide quantum dots can emit single photons at room temperature. The award will test whether UbiQD can develop its own materials and device design into a source that meets practical system requirements.
The patent portfolio covers more than quantum computing
UbiQD also used the announcement to outline its intellectual-property position. The company says it owns or exclusively licenses 17 granted U.S. patents and 23 granted international patents, with 27 applications pending. Its portfolio spans quantum-dot materials, processed forms such as films and concentrates, and applications including security inks, agriculture and solar technology.
One patent highlighted in the release, U.S. Patent No. 12,085,443, covers a “Fiber-coupled Broadband Light Source.” UbiQD says the patent has also been granted in Korea, Canada, the Netherlands, Germany and France, and applies to optical links inside AI data centers as well as quantum hardware. The company presents that patent as part of a broader portfolio; the announcement does not say that it covers the specific single-photon device the grant will fund.
The grant sets a test, not a performance record
UbiQD’s announcement frames the technical challenge around producing single photons reliably, at room temperature, with direct fiber coupling. It also says existing light sources do not meet all of those requirements at once, a characterization the company uses to explain the project’s aim. No prototype results, photon-emission statistics, timeline for completion or commercialization date appear in the release.
The first reported milestone is therefore a measurement campaign: UbiQD will assess the reliability of its quantum dots as single-photon emitters before refining the materials. The $200,000 award pays for that work and the associated device prototypes in Los Alamos.