A pi -phase-modulated Talbot illuminator means that there is a half-period
pi phase modulation in the output array. We will show that, by using the ru
le of regularly rearranged neighboring-phase difference, simple equations c
an be derived to describe the pure-phase distributions and the pulse-densit
y increased phenomena in a pi -phase-modulated Talbot illuminator. (C) 2001
John Wiley & Sons, Inc.