Increasing the efficiency of controllable laser thermal cleavage of insulating materials

This paper discusses various methods of increasing the efficiency of controllable thermal cleavage of insulating materials (oxide glasses, quartz, sapphire, etc.) by means of the radiation of CO2 lasers: noncontact production of microdefects for setting up a microcrack in the material being processed, control of the motion of a laser microcrack to make it possible to increase both the speed and thickness of the high-accuracy cutting of an insulating material by laser thermal cleavage, and thermal cleavage in mutually intersecting directions to obtain miniature items. © 2004 Optical Society of America