Most of today\u2019s quantum computers store information in superconducting circuits that must be chilled to a fraction of a degree above absolute zero inside large, expensive refrigerators. Another approach uses individual particles of light, called photons, to carry information. Photons can travel efficiently over long distances, which also makes them the natural choice for secure quantum communication networks, and light-based systems need far less extreme cooling. However, they do depend on a special light source that produces exactly one photon at a time, on demand. Typical light sources either emit a plurality photons at random, wasting most of their output, or must themselves be cooled to near absolute zero.<\/p>\n
Nothing available today addresses all the needs: safe materials, room temperature operation (not inside expensive refrigeration systems), tunable emission, fiber optic cable-coupled, and reliability at scale. UbiQD has spent a decade developing quantum dot technology, and researchers have shown in published studies that this class of materials can do exactly what quantum hardware companies need.<\/p>\n
\u201cQuantum computing is what originally drew me into this field, and this project is an exciting opportunity to bring our technology full circle,\u201d said Hunter McDaniel, PhD, Founder and CEO of UbiQD. \u201cNew 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. We\u2019re grateful to the state\u2019s Technology & Innovation Office for their support.\u201d<\/p>\n McDaniel first worked in quantum computing as an undergraduate researcher in Nobel laureate John Martinis\u2019 research group at UC Santa Barbara. His TEDx talk on quantum technology is available here<\/a>.<\/p>\n The grant will fund optical equipment and device prototyping at UbiQD\u2019s Los Alamos headquarters. The team will first measure how reliably its quantum dots are at producing single photons, then refine the materials until they meet industry performance targets. The work builds on a 2024-2025 partnership with Los Alamos National Laboratory under the Technology Readiness Gross Receipts (TRGR<\/a>) Initiative, which produced some of the first detailed measurements of this kind for UbiQD\u2019s safer proprietary I-III-VI semiconductor quantum dots (free of cadmium, lead, and mercury).<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re not just manufacturing materials, we\u2019re building an optical product and an IP position in the quantum industry,\u201d added Nikolay Makarov, Senior VP of R&D at UbiQD and principal investigator on the grant. \u201cNow we\u2019re using what we learned to build a light source that delivers one photon at a time, reliably, at room temperature.\u201d<\/p>\n![\"Introducing](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/1793202610_837_Option-1-1-1.png\")
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