Provided is a method for producing a glass particulate deposit, the method including disposing at least one burner at a position facing a rod that rotates around an axis, and spraying glass particulates generated in the flame from the burner to the rod while relatively reciprocating the rod and the burner in the axis direction of the rod, to deposit glass particulates, wherein the relation of 0.1 WV/R1.0 W is satisfied, where W mm represents the luminance width of the flame of the glass raw material, R rotations/min represents the rotational speed of the rod, and V mm/min represents the speed of the reciprocation.

A deposition system for depositing a chemical vapor onto a workpiece is disclosed, including a deposition chamber having a plurality of components for performing chemical vapor deposition on the workpiece. The workpiece is held by a lathe that rotates the workpiece relative to chemical burners that deposit silica soot on the workpiece. The deposition system has a gas panel for regulating the flow of gases and vapors into the deposition chamber, and a computer for controlling operation of the gas panel and the components in the deposition chamber. Multiple sets of chemical burners are disposed longitudinally along the length of the workpiece. Each set of burners is separated from other sets, such that each set of burners deposit silica particles onto generally different portions of a workpiece. The respective portions include an overlap segment in which one or more burners from one burner set will deposit silica particles on the same portion of the workpiece as one or more burners from another set.

An optical fiber preform including a glass material and a refractive index adjusting additive is disclosed. This preform has striae due to difference in concentration of the additive and the striae have concentric refractive index periodicity in at least a part thereof from a radial center of the preform to an outer periphery thereof. The respective striae pitches each indicating a period of the refractive index periodicity increase from the center of the preform to the outer periphery thereof.

A gas branching apparatus that branches and supplies a gas to first to N-th supply targets, includes first to N-th pipes wherein the first to N-th pipes are each branched into first to N-th branch pipes on a downstream end side, and wherein the i-th branch pipes of the respective first to N-th pipes are connected in common to the i-th supply target, and the i-th branch pipes of the respective first to N-th pipes are provided with valves, respectively, where i denotes each of integers of 1 to N.

A method for a defined deposition of a glass layer on an inner wall of a preform for an optical fiber and/or for setting a refractive index profile of the preform for a multi-mode fiber. The method includes providing the preform having a cavity and an inner wall which defines an inner diameter of the preform, and spreading a deposition gas at a flow speed (v) in the cavity of the preform so as to provide the defined deposition of the glass layer. The defined deposition is performed at a reduced change in the flow speed a*v, where a<1. Based on the defined deposition, a change in the flow speed (v): $v=\frac{4Q}{}.Math.\left(\frac{1}{d_i^2}-\frac{1}{d_{i+1}^2}\right)$
forms at a volume flow (Q), a first diameter (d.sub.i), and a second diameter (d.sub.i+1).

According to a fabrication method for fabricating a porous glass base material for optical fiber, the orientation of a clad forming burner used to form the outermost layer of a clad-corresponding portion is changed further upward while glass fine particles are deposited during the period between a first timing and a second timing. At the first timing, the outer diameter of the porous glass base material for optical fiber has not reached a target outer diameter. The second timing is later than the first timing, and either a timing at which the outer diameter of the porous glass base material for optical fiber reaches the target outer diameter for the first time, or a timing prior to this timing.

A manufacturing apparatus of porous glass base material includes deposition apparatuses that manufacture a porous glass base material by generating raw material particles from vaporized raw material compounds in an oxyhydrogen flame, and then depositing the generated raw material particles on a rotating starting material. The manufacturing apparatus includes a storage container that stores liquid raw material compounds for each compound, a vapor generation mechanism that vaporizes the raw material compounds, and a gas channel that supplies the vaporized raw material compounds to the deposition apparatuses. The gas channel includes a common gas channel shared to supply vaporized raw material compounds to the plurality of deposition apparatuses, and individual gas channels branched off from the common gas channel to supply vaporized raw material compounds to each of the deposition apparatuses individually. Each of the individual gas channels has a flow controller, a steam valve, and a valve.

An apparatus for producing a glass preform is an apparatus by pulling up a starting rod while the starting rod is rotated around an axis and glass fine particles generated by a burner are deposited in an axial direction of the starting rod. The apparatus for producing a glass preform includes an imaging device that acquires a deposition surface image by imaging a deposition surface of a glass fine particle deposit deposited on the starting rod, and an image processing unit that detects an edge shape of the deposition surface from the deposition surface image acquired using the imaging device to judge quality of the glass fine particle deposit by quantifying a degree of deformation of the edge shape.

An optical fiber base material manufacturing method includes: supplying oxygen, hydrogen, and silicide to a core deposition burner; depositing silicon dioxide; adjusting a drawing up speed so that a deposition tip position remains at the same position in accordance with growth of a porous base material; calculating an average of the drawing up speed at each preset time interval; calculating a difference of the calculated average from a preset value of the drawing up speed; correcting a flow rate of silicon tetrachloride when the supplied hydrogen is hydrogen produced or stored at normal temperature, and correcting a flow rate of hydrogen when the supplied hydrogen is hydrogen obtained by vaporizing liquid hydrogen, where when correcting the flow rate of hydrogen, a flow rate of hydrogen supplied to a cladding deposition burner is also corrected in a ratio of before and after the correction of the flow rate of the hydrogen.

According to a fabrication method for fabricating a porous glass base material for optical fiber, the orientation of a clad forming burner used to form the outermost layer of a clad-corresponding portion is changed further upward while glass fine particles are deposited during the period between a first timing and a second timing. At the first timing, the outer diameter of the porous glass base material for optical fiber has not reached a target outer diameter. The second timing is later than the first timing, and either a timing at which the outer diameter of the porous glass base material for optical fiber reaches the target outer diameter for the first time, or a timing prior to this timing.