A microfabrication method is provided with which it is possible to easily form a fine periodic structure on a surface of any substrate. A glass precursor is applied to a substrate, and the glass precursor is irradiated with short-pulse laser light. By the irradiation with short-pulse laser light, the glass precursor is activated to undergo a thermal reaction, and a fine periodic structure can be easily formed on the surface. Furthermore, by oxidizing the substrate on which the fine periodic structure has been formed, the hue of the surface can be improved while maintaining the fine periodic structure.

Certain example embodiments relate to techniques for improving the uniformity of, and/or conformance to a desired pattern for, metal island layers (MILs) formed on a substrate (e.g., a glass or other substrate), and/or associated products. Certain example embodiments form MILs using a laser or other energy source or magnetic field assisted technique, e.g., to compensate for non-uniformities that otherwise likely would result in the MIL diverging from its desired configuration. For example, a laser or other energy source may introduce heat onto a substrate, enable pulsed laser deposition, raster a target including the MIL metal to be deposited, raster a substrate where the MIL is to be formed, etc. These and/or other techniques may be used to enable the MIL to be formed on the substrate in a desired pattern, e.g., by compensating for implicit non-uniformities of the substrate and/or by selectively creating non-uniformities in how the MIL is formed.

Certain example embodiments relate to techniques for improving the uniformity of, and/or conformance to a desired pattern for, metal island layers (MILs) formed on a substrate (e.g., a glass or other substrate), and/or associated products. Certain example embodiments form MILs using a laser or other energy source or magnetic field assisted technique, e.g., to compensate for non-uniformities that otherwise likely would result in the MIL diverging from its desired configuration. For example, a laser or other energy source may introduce heat onto a substrate, enable pulsed laser deposition, raster a target including the MIL metal to be deposited, raster a substrate where the MIL is to be formed, etc. These and/or other techniques may be used to enable the MIL to be formed on the substrate in a desired pattern, e.g., by compensating for implicit non-uniformities of the substrate and/or by selectively creating non-uniformities in how the MIL is formed.

Disclosed herein are sealed devices comprising a first substrate, a second substrate, an inorganic film between the first and second substrates, and at least one weld region comprising a bond between the first and second substrates. The weld region can comprise a chemical composition different from that of the inorganic film and the first or second substrates. The sealed devices may further comprise a stress region encompassing at least the weld region, in which a portion of the device is under a greater stress than the remaining portion of the device. Also disclosed herein are display and electronic components comprising such sealed devices.

Methods of making a transparent glass-based article including at least two transparent glass-based substrates and a laser-induced bond therebetween. Methods include arranging the two transparent glass-based substrates relative to each other to form a contact area. Methods also include providing a laser beam contiguous the contact area to bond the two transparent glass-based substrates.

A method for producing a glass substrate according to the present invention includes the steps of: (I) forming a through hole (11) in a glass sheet (10); (II) forming a resin layer (20) on a first principal surface of the glass sheet (10) using a resin composition sensitive to light having a predetermined wavelength λ.sub.1; (III) photoexposing an area of the resin layer (20) that covers the through hole (11) by irradiating the area with light U having the wavelength λ.sub.1 and applied from the direction of a second principal surface of the glass sheet (10); and (IV) forming a through-resin hole (21) by removing the area photoexposed in the step (III). The glass sheet (10) protects the resin layer (20) from the light U so as to prevent the resin layer (20) from being photoexposed by beams of the light U that are incident on the second principal surface of the glass sheet (10) in the step (III).

Embodiments described herein provide for optical devices with methods of forming optical device substrates having at least one area of increased refractive index or scratch resistance. One method includes disposing an etch material on a discrete area of an optical device substrate or an optical device layer, disposing a diffusion material in the discrete area, and removing excess diffusion material to form an optical material in the optical device substrate or the optical device layer having a refractive index greater than or equal to 2.0 or a hardness greater than or equal to 5.5 Mohs.

A glass member includes a recessed portion, wherein in cross-sectional view, an angle formed between a principal surface of the glass member and an edge face of an opening of the recessed portion is 90 degrees to 130 degrees.

A window defect removal method includes inspecting a plurality of windows to select a defective window among the windows, providing a laser beam generator on the defective window, and irradiating a scratch of the defective window with a laser beam to remove the scratch. The laser beam generator generates the laser beam in a wavelength range from about 780 nm to about 100,000 nm.

A method of fabricating an optical element comprises: providing a substrate (1, 50) of a transparent material in which is to be formed a plurality of birefringent nanostructures spaced apart in plane substantially parallel to a surface of the substrate in a first direction (2) by a distance X and in a second direction (3) by a distance Y; generating from the output of a source (20) of femtosecond laser pulses a laser beam group comprising a plurality of focused seeding beams (44) having a circular polarisation and spaced apart along a line by the distance X and a focused writing beam (26) having a non-circular polarisation and spaced apart from one of the seeding beams by the distance Y or the distance X; directing the laser beam group onto the surface of the substrate at a first position and applying one or more femtosecond laser pulses from each beam to corresponding volumes in the substrate; repeatedly translating the laser beam group relative to the substrate parallel to the line of seeding beams and along the first direction by the distance X to a next position and applying one or more femtosecond laser pulses from each beam, in order to deliver a plurality of femtosecond laser pulses from the seeding beams to each corresponding volume to create substantially optically isotropic nanostructures in the corresponding volumes; translating the laser beam group relative to the substrate along the second direction by the distance Y and repeating the repeated translation and application of the femtosecond laser pulses along the first direction; wherein the relative translation of the laser beam group and the substrate aligns the writing beam with successive corresponding volumes in which substantially optically isotropic nanostructures have been created, so that the one or more femtosecond laser pulses applied from the writing beam transform the optically isotropic nanostructure in each corresponding volume into an optically isotropic nanostructure with optical birefringence.