Provided is an elongating method for elongating a glass base material by heating the same while moving the same downward within an elongating apparatus, the glass base material including a transparent tapered section, wherein the transparent tapered section is located at an upper end of the glass base material and has an end face to which a suspension dummy formed from a glass pole is welded, the elongating method comprising steps for: starting to elongate the glass base material by heating the same, starting from a lower-end side thereof, by causing the glass base material to pass through a range within the elongating apparatus in which a preset elongating process temperature or higher is maintained; and after the tapered section enters the range, ending the elongating of the glass base material before the end face enters the range.

An optical fiber with low attenuation and methods of making same are disclosed. The optical fiber has a core, an inner cladding surround the core, and an outer cladding surrounding the inner cladding. The outer cladding is chlorine-doped such that the relative refractive index varies as a function of radius. The radially varying relative refractive index profile of the outer cladding reduces excess stress in the core and inner cladding, which helps lower fiber attenuation while also reducing macrobend and microbend loss. A process of fabricating the optical fiber includes doping an overclad soot layer of a soot preform with chlorine and then removing a portion of the chlorine dopant from an outermost region of the overclad soot layer. The soot preform with the modified chlorine dopant profile is then sintered to form a glass preform, which can then be used for drawing the optical fiber.

A method of preparing an optical preform, comprises the steps of: positioning an optical preform comprising silica within a cavity of a furnace; passing an etchant gas into the furnace and at least one of through an open channel defined in the optical preform and around the optical preform; and passing a neutralizing gas into the cavity of the furnace, the neutralizing gas configured to neutralize the etchant gas.

A production method and others according to the present embodiment are provided with a structure for effectively preventing occurrence of accidental spiking during drawing of a preform. In order to control the residual He-concentration in the center part of the preform, a transparent glass rod that has a predetermined outer diameter and is already sintered but is not doped with an alkali metal yet is annealed in in the atmosphere not containing He gas for an annealing time determined by referring to result data in which the relationship between the annealing time and the residual He-concentration is previously recorded for each outer diameter. In the result data, actually measured data of the residual He-concentration in a produced optical fiber preform and the annealing time are accumulated as annealing treatment results.

One aspect relates to a method for producing an optical blank from synthetic quartz glass by vitrifying and shaping a porous, cylindrical SiO.sub.2 soot body having a longitudinal axis, in a heating zone including a melt mold with bottom plate. The SiO.sub.2 soot body vitrified in the heating zone at a vitrification temperature so as to form a full cylindrical, completely vitrified, transparent quartz glass body. Subsequently, the vitrified quartz glass body is shaped by softening in the melt mold at a softening temperature so as to form a viscous quartz glass mass which partly fills the volume of the melt mold, and cooling the quartz glass mass and removal from the melt mold so as to form the optical blank. During shaping in the melt mold, the full cylindrical quartz glass body is brought into contact by way of controlled supply with a centering means of the bottom plate.

A method for elongating a glass preform for an optical fiber is provided for producing a glass rod having a smaller diameter by elongating the glass preform having a large diameter, the method including: when the glass preform having a tapered transparent glass portion at one end of a straight body of the glass preform and a tapered portion including an opaque glass portion at another end is elongated, prior to the elongating, cutting a part of the tapered portion including the opaque glass portion, wherein a cut surface of the part is a lower end of the glass preform; and welding the cut surface of the tapered portion to a pulling dummy connected to a pulling mechanism in a elongating apparatus, wherein the cut surface is circular and has an outer diameter ranging from 135 mm to 160 mm.

A method of producing an optical fiber preform includes a silica glass body forming step of forming a silica glass body to be at least a portion of a core portion. The method includes an alkali-metal-doped silica glass body forming step of forming an alkali-metal-doped silica glass body doped with an alkali metal around the silica glass body such that the alkali-metal-doped silica glass body contacts the silica glass body. The method further includes a diffusing step of diffusing the alkali metal from the alkali-metal-doped silica glass body to the silica glass body by a heat treatment.

The present disclosure provides a method for modification of surface of an initial optical fiber preform. The initial optical fiber preform is manufactured using at least one preform manufacturing process. The surface of the initial optical fiber preform is treated with 50-70 liters of chlorine per square meter of the surface of the initial optical fiber preform. The surface of the initial optical fiber preform is flame polished using a flame polishing module. The treatment of the surface of the initial optical fiber preform with chlorine and flame polishing of the surface of the initial optical fiber preform collectively converts the initial optical fiber preform into a modified optical fiber preform.

A method of producing an optical fiber preform includes: an alkali-metal-doped silica glass body forming step of forming an alkali-metal-doped silica glass body doped with an alkali metal; a silica glass body forming step of forming a silica glass body to be at least a portion of a core portion around the alkali-metal-doped silica glass body such that the silica glass body contacts the alkali-metal-doped silica glass body; and a diffusing step of diffusing the alkali metal from the alkali-metal-doped silica glass body to the silica glass body by a heat treatment.

Provided is an optical fiber containing an alkali metal element or the like having a smaller diffusion coefficient than K and having a low Rayleigh scattering loss. An optical fiber is composed of silica glass and includes a core and a cladding arranged to surround the core which has a lower refractive index than the core. The core includes a first core including a central axis and a second core arranged to surround the first core. The average concentration of an alkali metal element or alkaline-earth metal element in the first core is 10 mol ppm or less. The average concentration of chlorine in the first core is 2000 mol ppm or more. The average concentration of an alkali metal element or alkaline-earth metal element in the second core is 10 mol ppm or more. The average concentration of chlorine in the second core is 10 to 600 mol ppm.