One aspect is an oven including a melting crucible with a crucible wall, a solids feed with an outlet, a gas inlet and a gas outlet, wherein in the melting crucible the gas inlet is arranged below the solids feed outlet and the gas outlet is arranged at the same height as or above the solids feed outlet. One aspect further relates to a process for making a quartz glass body, including providing and introducing a bulk material selected from silicon dioxide granulate and quartz glass grain into the oven and providing a gas, making a glass melt from the bulk material, and making a quartz glass body from at least a part of the glass melt. One aspect relates to a quartz glass body obtainable by this process and a light guide, an illuminant and a formed body which are each obtainable by processing the quartz glass body further.

The invention relates to a process for the preparation of a quartz glass body comprising the process steps i.) Providing a silicon dioxide granulate, ii.) Making a glass melt from the silicon dioxide granulate in an oven, and iii.) Making a quartz glass body from at least a part of the glass melt, wherein the oven comprises a hanging sinter crucible. The invention also relates to a quartz glass body which is obtainable by this process. The invention further relates to a light guide, an illuminant and a formed body which are each obtainable by further processing the quartz glass body.

One aspect relates to a process for the preparation of a quartz glass body. The process includes providing a silicon dioxide granulate from a pyrogenically produced silicon dioxide powder, making a glass melt out of silicon dioxide granulate, and making a quartz glass body out of at least part of the glass melt. The size of the quartz glass body is reduced to obtain a quartz glass grain. The quartz glass body is processed to make a preform and an opaque quartz glass body is made from the preform. One aspect further relates to an opaque quartz glass body which is obtainable by this process. One aspect further relates to a reactor and an arrangement, which are each obtainable by further processing of the opaque quartz glass body.

The invention relates to a process for the preparation of a quartz glass body comprising the process steps i.) Providing silicon dioxide particles, ii.) Making a glass melt out of the silicon dioxide particles in an oven and iii.) Making a quartz glass body out of at least part of the glass melt, wherein the oven has a gas outlet through which gas is removed from the oven, wherein the dew point of the gas on exiting the oven through the gas outlet is less than 0 C. The invention further relates to a quartz glass body which is obtainable by this process. The invention further relates to a light guide, an illuminant and a formed body, which are each obtainable by further processing of the quartz glass body.

An optical fiber includes a core, and a cladding. When a refractive index of silica glass is set as n.sub.0, a refractive index of the core is set as n.sub.1, and a refractive index of the cladding is set as n.sub.2, a relative refractive index difference ? defined by Expression (1):
?[%]=100?(n.sub.1.sup.2?n.sub.2.sup.2)/2n.sub.0.sup.2(1)
is 0.2% or higher. A ratio of a maximum value of a concentration of the dopant composed of the alkali metal element or the alkaline-earth metal element in the cladding to a maximum value of a concentration of the dopant composed of the alkali metal element or the alkaline-earth metal element in the core is 0.06 or higher and 0.25 or lower.

A method of making a multicore optical fiber preform, the method including consolidating a preform assembly to form the multicore optical fiber preform, the preform assembly including a plurality of core canes such that each core cane is disposed within an axial hole of a sleeve, each core cane including a core section of alkali doped silica glass such that the silica glass has a maximum alkali concentration between about 0.10 wt. % and about 10 wt. %, the core section of each core cane being encased by the sleeve along a height of the core cane and by covers disposed at first and second axial ends of the core section, and the covers including silica glass having a chlorine concentration of about 0.05 wt. % or less.

One aspect is a process for the preparation of a quartz glass body including providing a silicon dioxide granulate wherein the provision includes providing silicon dioxide powder, and processing the silicon dioxide powder to obtain a silicon dioxide granulate. The silicon dioxide granulate has a larger particle diameter than the silicon dioxide powder. The processing includes processing the silicon dioxide powder to obtain a silicon dioxide granulate I, wherein the silicon dioxide granulate I has a first carbon content wC(1), treating the silicon dioxide granulate I with a reactant to obtain a silicon dioxide granulate II with a further carbon content wC(2), wherein the further carbon content wC(2) is less than the first carbon content wC(1), making a glass melt out of the silicon dioxide granulate and making a quartz glass body out of at least part of the glass melt.

One aspect relates to a process for the provision of a quartz glass body, including providing a silicon dioxide granulate, making a glass melt from the silicon dioxide granulate in an oven and making a quartz glass body from at least part of the glass melt. The oven includes a hanging metal sheet crucible. One aspect also relates to a quartz glass body which is obtainable by this process. One aspect further relates to a light guide, an illuminant and a formed body which are obtainable by processing the quartz glass body further.

One aspect relates to a process for the preparation of a quartz glass body. The process includes providing a silicon dioxide granulate, making a glass melt out of the silicon dioxide granulate, and making a quartz glass body out of at least a part of the glass melt. In one aspect, providing a silicon dioxide granulate includes providing of a silicon dioxide powder and processing of the powder to obtain a silicon dioxide granulate including the spray drying of a silicon dioxide slurry using a nozzle. The nozzle has a contact surface to the slurry made of glass, plastic or a combination thereof. Furthermore, one aspect relates to a quartz glass body obtainable by this process. Furthermore, one aspect relates to the preparation of a silicon dioxide granulate. One aspect also relates to a light guide, an illuminant, and a formed body, made from processing of the quartz glass body.

One aspect relates to a light guide comprising a jacket and one or more cores, wherein the jacket surrounds the cores. Each core has a refractive index profile perpendicular to the maximum extension of the core, wherein at least one refractive index n.sub.K of each refractive index profile is greater than the refractive index n.sub.M1 of the jacket. The jacket is made of silicon dioxide and has an OH content of less than 10 ppm, a chlorine content of less than 60 ppm, and an aluminium content of less than 200 ppb. One aspect also relates to a silicon dioxide granulate I, characterized by a chlorine content of less than 200 ppm and an aluminium content of less than 200 ppb, in each case based on the total weight of the silicon dioxide granulate I.