Three INRS projects to receive $7.4M to enhance Canada’s quantum capabilities

From left to right: Roberto Morandotti with his team, Imtiaz Alamgir, Mahsmid Khazaei Shadfar, Andreia Daniela dos Santos Avila, Li Zhuohong, Moses Eshovo Ojo, Jinwon Yoo, Masnad Md Mahadi, Mohammad Ghazialsharif, Giacomo Balistreri, Sydney Lepard, Rob Helsten, Junliang Dong, Nicola Montaut, Alaeddine Abbes, Celine Mazoukh, Luigi Di Lauro, Stefania Sciara, Kobra Mahdavipour, and Pavel Dmitriev. Credits: Josée Lecompte. (CNW Group/Institut National de la recherche scientifique (INRS))

VARENNES — Three projects led by INRS professors will receive $7.4 million in funding over the next few years. These initiatives aim to enhance quantum communication, computing, and sensing capabilities by integrating photonics and quantum technologies.

The projects, all of which are university-industry partnerships, will be funded by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) through its Alliance Advantage grants program.

Alliance Advantage grants support initiatives that involve collaboration between academia and partner organizations in the private, public, or non-profit sectors. The purpose of these partnerships is to quickly find impactful applications for researchers’ discoveries with real, tangible benefits for the Canadian economy.

“The EMT Research Centre has outstanding research teams and infrastructure for developing quantum technologies,” says its director, Professor François Légaré. “Furthermore, through its mission, INRS is addressing this key subject for Quebec and Canada’s socioeconomic development.”

The “Scalable solid-state semiconductor platform for on-chip quantum communication” project will receive a grant of $1,170,000 over four years. Along with colleagues from McGill University and Polytechnique Montréal, the project is led by EMT Research Centre Professor Sharif Sadaf, nanophotonics specialist and holder of the Canada Research Chair in III-nitride Compound Semiconductor Nanostructures and Devices. The team’s goal is to develop a platform of semiconductors called epitaxial quantum dots (QDs) for efficient quantum light generation. These cutting-edge semiconductors will make it possible to generate and manipulate quantum photon states.

Known as single-photon sources (SPS) and capable of emitting one photon at a time on demand, these kinds of devices are the basis for many quantum technologies, such as quantum communication, quantum computing, and quantum sensing. The platform that Professor Sadaf and his colleagues aim to develop will be based on III-nitrides, whose quantum emission properties have been shown to be adjustable and controllable over a broad spectrum as well as at room temperature. This characteristic makes for a plethora of potential applications, particularly in terms of creating future electronics and optoelectronics technologies, including computer hardware, and developing next-generation on-chip quantum communication linked to the internet of the future.

EMT Research Centre Professor Roberto Morandotti, nonlinear optics specialist and holder of the Canada Research Chair in Smart Programmable Photonics, is heading up the “Advanced QUAntum applications via complex states in integrated and meta optics (AQUA)” project. It will receive $4,998,882 over five years. Four other EMT professors are co-directing: Sharif Sadaf, José Azaña, Luca Razzari, and Bienvenu Ndagano.

The AQUA project aims to develop and commercialize quantum communication, imaging, and sensing technologies based on integrated photonic processing platforms and techniques.

Lastly, the “High-dimensional photonic systems for quantum information processing” project has received funding totalling $1,275,000 over four years. It is also under the direction of Roberto Morandotti, in collaboration with EMT Research Centre Professor José Azaña, who held the Canada Research Chair in Ultrafast Photonic Signal Processing until 2021.

The project’s industrial partners are Ki3 Photonics Technologies and OptoElectronic Components, which specialize in quantum technology innovation and commercialization. Supported by a complementary grant from PRIMA Québec (the Advanced Materials Research and Innovation hub), the group’s work aims to demonstrate the feasibility of quantum internet.