Patent ID: 8639927

Claim:
A method of user-authenticated quantum key distribution, comprising: a quantum transmitting step that generates photons having a randomly polarized state by a sender and transmits the photons to a receiver; a user authentication step that selects specific positions corresponding to a secret key that are previously shared by the sender and the receiver, and determines whether to authenticate by publishing and exchanging positional information and measured outcomes of the specific positions, wherein the user authentication step designates the specific position having the same basis without needing to make public basis information to perform mutual authentication; an error rate estimating step that estimates an error rate for a position at which the measured outcomes are not published; a post-processing step that performs information reconciliation and privacy amplification to post-process the secret key considering the error rate; and a secret key generating step that divides and stores the secret key obtained in the post-processing step into a user authentication key and a communication secret key.