Ultrashort pulse lasers have been great tools for processing of transparent brittle materials like glass and sapphire for a decade now. Besides cutting or surface patterning by laser ablation, the laser beam can be focused into the bulk material to trigger material modifications. These modifications can then be used to cleave the glass by mechanical or thermal stresses, or they can be used to enable selective etching to remove glass and reaching cutting or drilling.
In the past, only straight cuts with cutting edges 90” to the glass surface were possible. With advanced beam shaping, the energy input by the laser beam and with it the modification of the glass can be tailored in three dimensions. This allows shaped cutting edges that have the potential to revolutionize the way glasses e.g. for consumer electronic devices can be processed.