  The Talbot effect, also referred to as self-imaging or lensless imaging, was
originally discovered in the 1830's by Henry Fox Talbot. Over the years,
various investigators have found different aspects of this phenomenon, and a
theory of the Talbot effect capable of explaining the various observations
based on the classical theory of diffraction has emerged. Unfortunately, many
of the standard Optics textbooks do not discuss the Talbot effect. The goal of
the present paper is to bring to the reader's attention the essential features
as well as an elementary explanation of this wonderful phenomenon.
