Quantum carpets, carpets of light

William B. Case, Mathias Tomandl, Sarayut Deachapunya +1 more

Talbot and Talbot-Lau effects are frequently used in lensless imaging applications with light, ultrasound, x-rays, atoms and molecules--generally in situations where refractive optical elements are non-existent or not suitable. We here show an experimental visualization of the intriguing wave patterns that are associated with near-field interferometry behind a single periodic diffraction grating under plane wave illumination and which are often referred to as Talbot carpets or quantum carpets. We also show the patterns behind two separated diffraction gratings under nearly-monochromatic but spatially incoherent illumination that illustrate the nature of Talbot-Lau carpets.

I. Marzoli, F. Saif, I. Białynicki-Birula +3 more

P Kazemi, S. Chaturvedi, Irene Marzoli +2 more

Quantum carpets—the spatio-temporal de Broglie density profiles—woven by an atom or an electron in the near-field region of a diffraction grating bring to light, in real time, the decoherence of each individual component of the interference term of the Wigner function characteristic of superposition states. The proposed experiments are feasible with present-day technology.

Stephen G. Benka

Michael Berry, Irene Marzoli, Wolfgang P. Schleich

In 1836 Henry Fox Talbot, an inventor of photography, published the results of some experiments in optics that he had previously demonstrated at a British Association meeting in Bristol (figure 1a). “It was very curious to observe that though the grating was greatly out of the focus of the lens...the appearance of the bands was perfectly distinct and well defined...the experiments are communicated in the hope that they may prove interesting to the cultivators of optical science.”