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.

Described is a process for the production of synthetic fused silica in which the deposition surface is located for a period of at least 50% of the build-up time of the soot body at a burner distance in which the horizontally integrated luminous intensity of the flame of the burner used in the targetless state is still at least ⅔ of the maximum horizontally integrated luminous intensity of the flame.

A method and an apparatus for producing a porous glass preform by using organosiloxane raw material is provided. The apparatus for producing the porous glass preform 12 according to the present embodiment is configured to mix organosiloxane in a liquid state being a raw material with a carrier gas in a vaporizer 6, heat this mixture to be vaporized, supply this vapor to a burner 13 as a gas raw material, and produce a porous glass preform by depositing a glass fine particle produced by combusting the gas raw material on a starting material, herein the apparatus for producing a porous glass preform includes a moisture removing apparatus 8 configured to remove moisture in the carrier gas and supply the vaporizer with the carrier gas.

Provided is a glass fine particle deposit in which a pH of glass fine particles on a surface of the glass fine particle deposit is 5.5 or more and less than 8.5, in which a color difference ΔE*ab with respect to a white calibration plate when the surface of the glass fine particle deposit is measured by the SCI method using a spectrophotometer is 0.5 or more and less than 5. Provided is a method for manufacturing a glass preform including: manufacturing a transparent glass preform by heating a glass fine particle deposit in which a pH of glass fine particles on a surface of the glass fine particle deposit is 5.5 or more and less than 8.5; and measuring the surface of the deposit by the SCI method using a spectrophotometer and determining whether a color difference ΔE*ab with respect to a white calibration plate is 5 or more.

When organic siloxane in a liquid state is used as a raw material for glass particles, the formation of polymerized substances is suppressed when the raw material is vaporized in a vaporizer. In the manufacturing method of porous glass base material according to the present invention, the liquid organic siloxane, which is the raw material, is mixed with a carrier gas in the vaporizer, vaporized by the heat generated from the inner wall of the vaporizer heated by a heater unit, and supplied to the burner as a gas raw material. The porous glass base material is manufactured by depositing the glass particles generated by the combustion of the gas raw material on the starting material. The heating output of the heater unit is controlled so that the maximum temperature of the inner wall of the vaporizer is 230° C. or lower.

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.

Provided are such a method of manufacturing a hollow synthetic quartz glass porous preform and method of manufacturing a synthetic quartz glass cylinder as described below: even a soot body having an outer diameter of more than 300 mm can be produced without significantly increasing a load on an apparatus, such as a centrifugal force generated during growth; even when manufactured at low-speed rotation, the soot body is free of any crack or rupture; and a target can be easily extracted. Specifically, provided is a method of manufacturing a hollow porous quartz glass preform by an OVD method, wherein the rotation peripheral speed of the soot body is controlled so as to be practically constant by fluctuating the rotation number of the soot body on the basis of a fluctuating outer diameter of the soot body during growth, and wherein a frequency factor γ calculated by the following equation is set so as to fall within the range of 0.13≤γ<1.0 in a range in which the outer diameter of the soot body is more than 250 mm: γ=S/(L.Math.N.sub.m), where S represents the moving speed (mm/min) of the burners, L represents the moving distance (mm) of the burners, and N.sub.m represents the lowest value (rpm) of the rotation number of the soot body, which is fluctuated.

An apparatus for manufacturing an optical fiber preform includes: a holding part that rotatably holds a target with a center axis of the target as a rotation axis; a plurality of burner units that are arranged at mutually different positions in a circumferential direction of the target, forms flames for generating glass particles to be deposited on the target, and are capable of performing reciprocating movements along the target in a movable range between a first position on one end side of the target and a second position on the other end side of the target; and a control unit that controls the plurality of burner units so that speeds of return movements of the plurality of burner units that perform the reciprocating movements are different from each other.

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.

Provided is a device for producing a fine glass particle deposited body by depositing fine glass particles on a starting rod disposed within a reaction vessel, the device being provided with: a burner for synthesizing fine glass particles by jetting out a source gas; a transfer mechanism to which the burner is disposed and which causes the burner to move backward in association with an increase in the diameter of a fine glass particle deposited body; a vaporizer which is disposed to the transfer mechanism so as to be moved backward integrally with the burner and which converts a liquid siloxane into a source gas through vaporization; piping through which the source gas is fed from the vaporizer to the burner; and a heating mechanism which heats up the piping with a heating temperature of at least 230° C.