Second-order Talbot self-imaging with pseudothermal light

The second-order Talbot effect with thermal light is both theoretically and experimentally investigated. Three kinds of experimental schemes are performed, one of which reproduces the classical Talbot self-imaging and the others show plentiful self-imaging effects, in which an object with a periodic structure can be enlarged or diminished. The theoretical analysis, in good agreement with the experimental results, testifies that the specificity in the second-order Talbot effect refers to the joint diffraction of two correlated beams.