Nearly two centuries ago Talbot first observed the fascinating effect whereby light propagating through a periodic structure generates a “carpet” of image revivals in the near field. Here we report the first observation of the spatial Talbot effect for light interacting with periodic Bose–Einstein condensate interference fringes. The Talbot effect can lead to dramatic loss of fringe visibility in images, degrading precision interferometry; however, we demonstrate how the effect can also be used as a tool to enhance visibility, as well as extend the useful focal range of matter-wave detection systems by orders of magnitude. We show that negative optical densities arise from matter-wave induced lensing of detuned imaging light—yielding Talbot-enhanced single-shot interference visibility of $>135\%$ compared to the ideal visibility for resonant light.

中文翻译：

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Talbot增强型凝结水干扰的最大可见度成像

大约两个世纪前，塔尔伯特（Talbot）首先观察到了令人着迷的效果，即通过周期性结构传播的光在近场中产生了图像复兴的“地毯”。在这里，我们首次报道了空间Talbot效应与周期性Bose-Einstein冷凝物干涉条纹相互作用的光。Talbot效应会导致图像中条纹可见度的极大损失，从而降低精密干涉仪的质量；但是，我们展示了该效果还可以如何用作增强可见性的工具，以及如何将物波检测系统的有用焦点范围扩大几个数量级。我们证明了负光密度是由物质波引起的失谐成像光的透镜产生的，从而产生了Talbot增强的单发干涉可见度。$>135％$ 与共振光的理想可见度相比。