A polishing agent for a synthetic quartz glass substrate contains polishing particles and water. The polishing particles contain silica particles as base particles, and composite oxide particles of cerium and at least one rare earth element selected from trivalent rare earth elements other than cerium are supported on surfaces of the base particles. This provides a polishing agent for a synthetic quartz glass substrate, the polishing agent having high polishing rate and being capable of sufficiently reducing generation of defects due to polishing.

An active optical fibre, including: a core; an inner cladding substantially surrounding the core, whereby the core and the inner cladding form an area configured to propagate pump radiation; an outer cladding comprised of at least a third material with at least a third refractive index substantially surrounding the inner cladding, the third refractive index being smaller than the second refractive index, whereby the outer cladding confines pump radiation to the core and the inner cladding; and a coating comprised of a thermally conductive material substantially surrounding the outer cladding, wherein the inner cladding is configured to reduce impact of spatial hole-burning on absorption of the pump radiation as the pump radiation propagates through the active optical fibre, and wherein the thermally conductive material of the coating supports a reduced temperature increase between the area and an outer surface of the coating.

A quartz glass provides an opaque quartz glass having high light-shielding property, excellent mechanical strength and excellent cleaning resistance against hydrofluoric acid. By setting the maximum width of the amorphous bubbles existing in the opaque quartz glass to an average of 3 to 15 m and the density to 2.15 g/cm.sup.3 or more, the mechanical strength after baking and the cleaning resistance by hydrofluoric acid are improved. The opaque quartz glass has a whiteness at a thickness of 10 mm of 75 to 90%, the reflectance of light with a wavelength of 0.24 to 2.6 m at a thickness of 4 mm is 60 to 85%, and the bending strength after baking is 95 MPa. In addition, a foaming agent may be mixed in the opaque quartz glass. An opaque quartz glass having cleaning resistance against acid can be obtained.

A quartz glass plate has a quartz glass plate body and a quartz glass member adhered to the quartz glass plate body through an adhesive layer, where the adhesive layer contains silica, and a sum of concentrations of Li, Na, and K ions, being alkali metal ions and Ca ions, being alkaline earth metal ions contained in the adhesive layer is 10 ppm by mass or less. Consequently, a step with a uniform thickness can be formed, and a quartz glass plate is not easily damaged by irradiation with a light containing an ultraviolet ray.

The present disclosure provides a method for fabrication of a glass preform. The method includes production of soot particles in a combustion chamber using a precursor material. The heating of the precursor material produces the soot particles along with one or more impurities. In addition, the method includes agglomeration of the soot particles. Further, the method includes separation of the soot particles from the one or more impurities. Also, the separation of the soot particles is performed in a cyclone separator. Furthermore, the method includes collection of the soot particles. Also, the soot particles are compacted with facilitation of a preform compaction chamber. Also, the compacted preform is sintered with facilitation of a sintering furnace. The compaction of the soot particles followed by sintering results in formation of the glass preform.

A Photonic Crystal Fiber (PCF) a method of its production and a supercontinuum light source comprising such PCF. The PCF has a longitudinal axis and includes a core extending along the length of said longitudinal axis and a cladding region surrounding the core. At least the cladding region includes a plurality of microstructures in the form of inclusions extending along the longitudinal axis of the PCF in at least a microstructured length section. In at least a degradation resistant length section of the microstructured length section the PCF includes hydrogen and/or deuterium. In at least the degradation resistant length section the PCF further includes a main coating surrounding the cladding region, which main coating is hermetic for the hydrogen and/or deuterium at a temperature below T.sub.h, wherein T.sub.h is at least about 50? C., preferably 50? C.<T.sub.h<250? C.

Provided is a glass fabric formed by weaving warp and weft glass yarns comprising a plurality of glass filaments, wherein the surface of the glass fabric is subjected to surface treatment with a surface treatment agent, and the total carbon extraction amount when the glass fabric is subjected to extraction with methanol is greater than 0 and not more than 0.25%.

Provided is a glass fabric formed by weaving warp and weft glass yarns comprising a plurality of glass filaments, wherein the surface of the glass fabric is subjected to surface treatment with a surface treatment agent, and the difference between the dielectric loss tangent and the bulk dielectric loss tangent of the glass fabric as measured by using a split cylinder resonator is greater than 0 and not more than 1.0?10.sup.?3 at 10 GHz.

A quartz glass container is shown and described herein. The quartz glass container exhibits a low concentration of surface defects on an inner surface of the container. In aspects hereof, the container may have a surface defect density of 50 or fewer surface defects per square centimeter within a 1 cm band centered 1 cm from the base of the container.

In a glass cloth made of glass filaments having a composition which is at least 50 wt % SiO.sub.2, the filaments have a diameter that is 0.5 ?m or more and less than 3.0 ?m. The glass cloth has a thickness of 15 ?m or less and a weight of from 0.3 to 10 g/m.sup.2.