Abstract: The invention relates to fiber optics and can be employed in fiber radiation collimators, optical waveguide couplers, spectral filters, optical isolators, long-period gratings, dispersion compensators, cascade mode field diameter conversion fibers on simulated Raman effect, physical value sensors, radiation suppression units for predetermined wavelengths, and for smoothing the gain spectrum in erbium fiber amplifiers. The invention facilitates fabrication of optical waveguides and apparatuses based on them. To produce preforms for optical waveguides (1) by a plasma chemical vapor deposition method, molecular gaseous agents, fed to a substrate tube (24), are mixed so that less than five atoms of oxygen fall on every atom of silicon and more than one atom of nitrogen falls on every 1000 atoms of oxygen. The refractive index is locally changed by heating a length of an optical waveguide (1). This causes a local thermal diffusion of elements contained in a core (3) into a cladding (2), or vice versa.