1. Eavesdropper's ability to attack a free-space quantum-key-distribution receiver in atmospheric turbulence
- Author
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Anqi Huang, Jean-Philippe Bourgoin, Thomas Jennewein, Poompong Chaiwongkhot, Yanbao Zhang, Vadim Makarov, Shihan Sajeed, Katanya B. Kuntz, and Norbert Lütkenhaus
- Subjects
Wavefront ,Physics ,Quantum Physics ,Spatial light modulator ,Turbulence ,business.industry ,FOS: Physical sciences ,Quantum key distribution ,Laser ,01 natural sciences ,010305 fluids & plasmas ,law.invention ,Optics ,law ,Computer Science::Multimedia ,0103 physical sciences ,Atmospheric turbulence ,Quantum Physics (quant-ph) ,010306 general physics ,Adaptive optics ,business ,Beam (structure) ,Computer Science::Information Theory ,Computer Science::Cryptography and Security - Abstract
The ability of an eavesdropper (Eve) to perform an intercept-resend attack on a free-space quantum key distribution (QKD) receiver by precisely controlling the incidence angle of an attack laser has been previously demonstrated. However, such an attack could be ineffective in the presence of atmospheric turbulence due to beam wander and spatial mode aberrations induced by the air's varying index of refraction. We experimentally investigate the impact turbulence has on Eve's attack on a free-space polarization-encoding QKD receiver by emulating atmospheric turbulence with a spatial light modulator. Our results identify how well Eve would need to compensate for turbulence to perform a successful attack by either reducing her distance to the receiver, or using beam wavefront correction via adaptive optics. Furthermore, we use an entanglement-breaking scheme to find a theoretical limit on the turbulence strength that hinders Eve's attack., Comment: 10 pages, 5 figures
- Published
- 2019