Apparatus and method for fabricating glass bodies using an aerosol delivery system

An MCVD method of fabricating a silica optical fiber that includes a multiplicity of constituents, at least one constituent being a first rare-earth dopant having a first LVP precursor comprising the steps of:

• (a) generating a first aerosol comprising first particles of the first LVP precursor, the first particles consisting of the first LVP precursor of the first dopant, wherein generating step (a) includes the additional steps of (a1) providing the first LVP precursor to a first chamber of a vessel, (a2) heating the first LVP precursor to a temperature high relative to room temperature to provide a vapor thereof, (a3) flowing a carrier gas into the first chamber, thereby to generate in a second chamber of the vessel a vapor of carrier gas containing the first precursor, (a4) flowing a cooler carrier gas into the second chamber, thereby to condense the vapor and form the first aerosol of the first LVP precursor, and (a5) extracting the first aerosol from the vessel;
• (b) separately generating a vapor of a silica precursor;
• generating steps (a) and (b) taking place at a location remote from a deposition system used to form the optical fiber;
• (c) convecting the first aerosol and the silica vapor from the remote location through tubing to an MCVD system, which includes a substrate tube, the tubing being maintained at or slightly above room temperature;
• (d) forming on an inside wall of the substrate tube doped silica layers from the particles and vapors convected by step (c);
• and
• (e) collapsing the substrate tube to form a fiber preform.

A method of fabricating a glass body that includes a multiplicity of constituents, at least one constituent being a first dopant having a first LVP precursor comprising the steps of:

• (a) generating a first aerosol comprising first particles that include the first LVP precursor;
• generating step (a) including the steps of (a1) providing a vapor of the LVP precursor and (a2) supersaturating the LVP vapor to form the aerosol;
• (b) separately generating vapors of the other constituents;
• (c) convecting the aerosol of step (a) and the vapors of step (b) to a deposition system including a substrate;
• and
• (d) forming on a surface of the substrate at least one doped layer from the dopants contained in the aerosol and vapors convected in step (c).