Temporal Talbot effect in free space

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates the first observation of the temporal Talbot effect in free space using dispersive space-time wave packets, expanding the understanding of wave propagation in dispersive media beyond fiber optics.

Contribution

It introduces a novel method to observe the temporal Talbot effect in free space through dispersive space-time wave packets, previously only seen in fiber optics.

Findings

First demonstration of temporal Talbot effect in free space

Use of dispersive space-time wave packets to induce controllable dispersion

Observation of periodic pulse revivals in free space

Abstract

The temporal Talbot effect refers to the periodic revivals of a pulse train propagating in a dispersive medium, and is a temporal analog of the spatial Talbot effect with group-velocity dispersion in time replacing diffraction in space. Because of typically large temporal Talbot lengths, this effect has been observed to date in only single-mode fibers, rather than with freely propagating fields in bulk dispersive media. Here we demonstrate for the first time the temporal Talbot effect in free space by employing dispersive space-time wave packets, whose spatio-temporal structure induces group-velocity dispersion of controllable magnitude and sign in free space.