Perfect vortex beam: Fourier transformation of a Bessel beam

We derive a mathematical description of a perfect vortex beam as the Fourier transformation of a Bessel beam. Building on this development, we experimentally generate Bessel-Gauss beams of different orders and Fourier transform them to form perfect vortex beams. By controlling the radial wave vector of a Bessel-Gauss beam, we can control the ring radius of the generated beam. Our theoretical predictions match with the experimental results and also provide an explanation for previous published works. We find the perfect vortex resembles that of an orbital angular momentum (OAM) mode supported in annular profiled waveguides. Our prefect vortex beam generation method can be used to excite OAM modes in an annular core fiber. (C) 2015 Optical Society of America