How Perfect are Perfect Vortex Beams

Perfect (optical) vortex (PV) beams are fields which are mooted to be independent of the orbital angular momentum (OAM) they carry. To date, the best experimental approximation of these modes is obtained from passing Bessel-Gaussian beams through a Fourier lens. However, the OAM-dependent width of these quasi-PVs is not precisely known and is often understated. We address this here by deriving and experimentally confirming an explicit analytic expression for the second moment width of quasi-PVs. We show that the width scales in proportion to $\sqrt{\ell}$ in the best case, the same as most "regular" vortex modes albeit with a much smaller proportionality constant. Our work will be of interest to the large community who seek to use such structured light fields in various applications, including optical trapping, tweezing and communications.