Theoretical study of ghost imaging with cold atomic waves under the condition of partial coherence

A matter wave ghost imaging mechanism is proposed and demonstrated theoretically. This mechanism is based on the Talbot-Lau effect. Periodic gratings of matter wave density, which appear as a result of interference of atoms diffracted by pulses of an optical standing wave, are utilized to produce the reference wave and the signal wave simultaneously for the ghost imaging. An advantage of this mechanism is that during the imaging process, the beam-splitter is not needed, which highly simplifies the experimental setup and makes the ghost imaging possible in the field of matter wave.