Xanadu and CMC among partners in academic quantum projects receiving $7.4 million in federal grant funding

Three quantum projects from professors in Québec’s Institut National de la recherche scientifique (INRS) are receiving $7.4 million in funding from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC). 

The projects, funded through NSERC’s Alliance Advantage grants program, aim to enhance quantum communication, computing, and sensing capabilities with photonics and other quantum technologies. While mostly academic in nature, the projects have industry partners that include notable Canadian quantum and semiconductor companies like Xanadu, Numana, and CMC Microsystems. 

Each project has at least one professor from INRS’s Energy Materials Telecommunications Research Center (EMT) attached. 

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Led by EMT professor Sharif Sadaf with colleagues from McGill University and Polytechnique Montréal, the “scalable solid-state semiconductor platform for on-chip quantum communication” project is receiving a grant of $1.17 million over four years. INRS says that Sadaf is a nanophotonics specialist and holds a Canada Research Chair. 

The project aims to develop a single-photon source (SPS) platform of semiconductors called “epitaxial quantum dots,” claiming the technology will make it possible to generate and manipulate quantum photon states. INRS says SPS, which are capable of emitting one photon at a time on demand, are the basis for many quantum technologies. 

Xanadu, CMC Microsystems, and Numana are acting as industry partners on the project. 

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EMT professor Roberto Morandotti is leading the “Advanced QUAntum applications via complex states in integrated and meta optics (AQUA)” project, which will receive nearly $5 million over five years. INRS says Morandotti is a nonlinear optics specialist and also holds a Canada Research Chair. Four other EMT professors are co-directing the project, including Sadaf, José Azaña, Luca Razzari, and Bienvenu Ndagano.

AQUA aims to develop and commercialize various quantum technologies based on integrated photonic processing platforms and techniques. Industrial partners include CMC Microsystems, PASQAL, Xanadu, and original equipment manufacturer Ki3 Photonics Technologies.

Morandotti is also heading the “high-dimensional photonic systems for quantum information processing” in collaboration with Azaña. The project is receiving $1.27 million over four years to “demonstrate the feasibility of quantum internet.”  INRS says Morandotti, Azaña, and their team intend to develop and commercialize a quantum photonic processor, as well as set up a test bed for quantum communication over fibre-optic links. Ki3 Photonics Technologies is also one of the industry partners on the project. 

Feature image courtesy INRS. 

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