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Physical Review Letters

Experimental Observation of Quantum Talbot Effects

Xin-Bing Song, Haibo Wang, Jun Xiong, Kaige Wang, Xiangdong Zhang, Kai-Hong Luo, Ling-An Wu

Published Jul 14, 2011• 100 citations
Publisher

Abstract

We report the first experimental observation of quantum Talbot effects with single photons and entangled photon pairs. Both the first- and second-order quantum Talbot self-images are observed experimentally. They exhibit unique properties, which are different from those produced by coherent and incoherent classical light sources. In particular, our experiments show that the revival distance of two-photon Talbot imaging is twice the usual classical Talbot length and there is no net improvement in the resolution, due to the near-field effect of Fresnel diffraction, which is different from the case of previous proof-of-principle quantum lithography experiments in the far field.

DOI
10.1103/physrevlett.107.033902

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We report the first experimental observation of quantum Talbot effects with single photons and entangled photon pairs. Both the first- and second-order quantum Talbot self-images are observed experimentally. They exhibit unique properties, which are different from those produced by coherent and incoherent classical light sources. In particular, our experiments show that the revival distance of two-photon Talbot imaging is twice the usual classical Talbot length and there is no net improvement in the resolution, due to the near-field effect of Fresnel diffraction, which is different from the case of previous proof-of-principle quantum lithography experiments in the far field.
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 2.
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The quantum Talbot effect is observed from a domain-engineered nonlinear photonic crystal dispensing with a real grating. We deduce and experimentally verify the quantum self-imaging formula which is related to the crystal's structure parameter and working wavelengths. A two-photon Talbot carpet is captured to characterize the Fresnel diffraction dynamics of entangled photons wherein the quantum fractional Talbot effect is specified. The compact and stable quantum Talbot effect can be considered as the contactless diagnosis of domain's homogeneity and developed for new types of entangled photon source and quantum technologies such as quantum lithography with improved performance.
The quantum Talbot effects with orbital angular momentum (OAM) photons have been investigated theoretically. Two schemes, holographic ghost-image and twin-photon configuration, have been considered. They exhibit unique properties, which are different from the cases of previous classical and quantum Talbot effects. The Talbot effects in the present schemes originate from lateral translation of the periodic object instead of transverse coherences of optical fields or photon wave functions. The Talbot pattern in the present case can be manipulated by the OAM number of the incident photons, which is equivalent to the Talbot effect of an effective periodic object illuminated by photons without the OAM. This means that complex diffraction patterns of an unusual periodic object can be obtained by designing the Talbot effect with OAM photons, which provides a promising idea in optical designs for the diffraction patterns.