Robustness of Quantum Key Distribution Against Quantum Phase Error and a New Attack Strategy

Quantum key distribution (QKD) has been considered as an absolute secure mechanism with one-time pad key management. However, the quantum engineering perspective of QKD has not been well investigated. In this paper, we take a quantum phase error into the quantum channel of QKD to explore the subsequent impacts on the system performance and security analysis. Furthermore, using quantum channel phase estimation (QCPE) we restore the QKD system and suggest a new security (attack) strategy for Bob (Eve).