Second-order Talbot effect with entangled photon pairs

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 2.