The Second-Order Talbot Effect with Entangled Photon Pairs

TL;DR

This paper investigates the second-order Talbot effect using entangled photon pairs, revealing nonlocal self-imaging in quantum imaging and enhanced resolution in quantum lithography, with potential improvements over classical methods.

Contribution

It introduces a detailed analysis of the second-order Talbot effect with entangled photons, showing nonlocal imaging and resolution enhancement compared to classical optics.

Findings

Nonlocal self-images observed in quantum imaging.

Second-order Talbot length is half of the classical case.

Potential resolution improvement by a factor of two.

Abstract

The second-order Talbot effect is analyzed for a periodic object illuminated by entangled photon pairs in both the quantum imaging and quantum lithography configurations. The Klyshko picture is applied to describe the quantum imaging scheme, in which self-images of the object that may or may not be magnified can be observed nonlocally in the photon coincidences but not in the singles count rate. In the quantum lithography setup, we find that the second-order Talbot length is half that of the classical first-order case, thus the resolution may be improved by a factor of two.