A method for separating a solid-body layer from a donor substrate includes providing a donor substrate having a planar surface, a longitudinal axis orthogonal to the planar surface, and a peripheral surface, and producing modifications within the donor substrate using at least one LASER beam. The at least one LASER beam penetrates the donor substrate via the peripheral surface at an angle not equal to 90? relative to the longitudinal axis of the donor substrate. The method further includes producing a stress-inducing polymer layer on the planar surface of the donor substrate, and producing mechanical stresses in the donor substrate by a thermal treatment of the stress-inducing polymer layer. The mechanical stresses produce a crack for separating the solid-body layer, and wherein the crack propagates along the modifications.

A method for manufacturing a glass substrate including an opening includes forming lines of inner and outer circumferential portions irradiated with a laser beam along substantially concentric circles in a surface of a glass blank, separating a portion on an inner side of the line of the outer circumferential portion of the glass blank and a portion on an outer side of the line of the outer circumferential portion from each other by heating the portion on the outer side of the line of the outer circumferential portion with radiant heat, and separating a portion on an inner side of the line of the inner circumferential portion of the glass blank and a portion on an outer side of the line of the inner circumferential portion from each other by heating the portion on the outer side of the line of the inner circumferential portion with radiant heat.

A method for cutting and separating an item from a workpiece made of a brittle material is disclosed. The method uses straight and circular release features that are arranged to cause controlled cracking in scrap material close to each inside curve in the outline of the item. A first pulsed laser-beam weakens material along the outline of the item and along the release features. A second laser-beam selectively heats the release features for sufficient time to cause melting and deformation, thereby initiating the controlled cracking.

A chemically toughened ultrathin glass is provided. The glass has a thickness less than 500 ?m and a surface compressive layer having a depth of at most 30 ?m. The toughened ultrathin glass sheet is more flexible and has extraordinary thermal shock resistance with the glass being easier to handle for processing.

A method for producing a glass film is provided. The method includes: heating a portion of a glass preform so that in the heated portion the glass has a viscosity of less than 10.sup.9 dPa.Math.s, or drawing a glass from a melt; withdrawing the glass using a drawing device, wherein in case of drawing from a preform the drawn glass film is thinner than the glass preform; heating at least one point by means of a laser, the point being located in an edge region of the drawn glass film that is being formed by withdrawing the glass, wherein at the site of the laser focus the glass has a viscosity of not more than 10.sup.9 dPa.Math.s before the laser is switched on and wherein heating is performed in such a manner that at least one notch is provided in parallel to the drawing direction.

A non-ablative method and apparatus for making an economical glass hard disk (platter) for a computer hard disk drive (HDD) using a material machining technique involving filamentation by burst ultrafast laser pulses. Two related methods disclosed, differing only in whether the glass substrate the HDD platter is to be cut from has been coated with all the necessary material layers to function as a magnetic media in a computer's hard drive. Platter blanks are precisely cut using filamentation by burst ultrafast laser pulses such that the blank's edges need not be ground, the platter's geometric circularity need not be corrected and there is no need for further surface polishing. Thus the platters can be cut from raw glass or coated glass. As a result, this method reduces the product contamination, speeds up production, and realizes great reductions in the quantity of waste materials and lower production costs.

Methods of separating a glass web include the step (I) of exposing a path on the glass web to at least one laser beam to produce thermal stress along the path without damaging the glass web. The methods further include the step (II) of creating a defect on the path while the path is under thermal stress produced during step (I), whereupon the glass web spontaneously separates along the path in response to the defect.

The present invention relates to a method for separating solid-body slices (1) from a donor substrate (2). The method comprises the steps of: producing modifications (10) within the donor substrate (2) by means of laser beams (12), wherein a detachment region is predefined by the modifications (10), along which detachment region the solid-body layer (1) is separated from the donor substrate (2), and removing material from the donor substrate (2), starting from a surface (4) extending in the peripheral direction of the donor substrate (2), in the direction of the centre (Z) of the donor substrate (2), in particular in order to produce a peripheral indentation (6).

A glass plate production method includes (1) preparing a glass material having a first main surface and a second main surface opposite to each other; (2) irradiating the first main surface of the glass material with a laser to form an in-plane void region having a plurality of voids arranged on the first main surface, and forming a plurality of internal void rows each having one void or two or more voids arranged from the in-plane void region toward the second main surface of the glass material; and (3) chemically strengthening the glass material having the internal void rows formed therein.

The present invention relates to a laser cutting technology for cutting and separating thin substrates of transparent materials, for example to cutting of display glass compositions mainly used for production of Thin Film Transistors (TFT) devices. The described laser process can be used to make straight cuts, for example at a speed of >1 m/sec, to cut sharp radii outer corners (<1 mm), and to create arbitrary curved shapes including forming interior holes and slots. A method of laser processing an alkaline earth boro-aluminosilicate glass composite workpiece includes focusing a pulsed laser beam into a focal line. The focal line is directed into the glass composite workpiece, generating induced absorption within the material. The workpiece and the laser beam are translated relative to each other to form a plurality of defect lines along a contour, with adjacent defect lines have a spacing of 0.1-20 microns.