Optical waveguide preform fabrication: Silica formation and growth in a high-temperature aerosol reactor

Abstract

Silica particle formation and growth in a high-temperature aerosol reactor has been studied. A novel sampling probe has been used to obtain the evolution of the silica particle size distribution in the reactor. A simple model approximating the particle size distribution by a unimodal lognormal function was used to describe the aerosol behavior in the reactor. Good agreement of the integral properties of the aerosol size distribution was obtained between theory and experiment. Reasonable agreement was also obtained with the prediction of more sophisticated models for aerosol dynamics.