A method of separating a transparent mother sheet includes contacting a first surface of the transparent mother sheet with an open ended pressure assembly including a pressure vessel shell, thereby forming a shell cavity defined by the first surface of the transparent mother sheet and the pressure vessel shell, where the transparent mother sheet comprises a damage path. The method also includes removing gas from the shell cavity through a fluid removal outlet extending through the pressure vessel shell to reduce a cavity pressure in the shell cavity, thereby applying stress to the damage path to separate a portion of the transparent mother sheet along the damage path.

A pulsed laser printing module for a contact lens, comprises a steel mold, a pulsed laser device and a forming case. The steel mold is configured for transferring pigment. The pulsed laser device is configured for transmitting ultrashort laser pulses having pulse time widths less than 10.sup.−9 seconds. The ultrashort laser pulses etch the surface of the steel mold to remove a coating of the steel mold to form an etched layer. The forming case has a lower member and an upper member. The lower member is a concavity, and an inner surface of the lower member is provided with a lower curved surface. The upper member is provided with a protrusion corresponding to the lower member, and an outer surface of the protrusion is provided with an upper curved surface corresponding to the lower curved surface. The protrusion is capable of being placed in a concavity of the lower member to form a gap between the lower curved surface and the upper curved surface.

The present invention relates to ultrafast laser inscribed structures for signal concentration in focal plan arrays, focal plan arrays, imaging and/or sensing apparatuses comprising said focal plan arrays, as well as methods of making and/or using ultrafast laser inscribed structures for signal concentration in focal plan arrays, focal plan arrays, imaging and/or sensing apparatuses comprising said focal plan arrays. Such ultrafast laser inscribed structures are particularly adapted to condense broad band radiation, thus allowing increased sensing efficiencies to be obtained from imaging and/or sensing apparatuses. Such ultrafast laser inscribed structures can be efficiently produced by the processes provided herein.

One aspect is a device for processing a filament in a process stream, including at least one processing beam source, designed and arranged for emitting at least one processing beam which is suitable for processing a segment of the filament by interaction of the at least one processing beam with the segment of the filament, thereby obtaining a processed filament. The device includes a guide, including a filament feed which is arranged upstream of the at least one processing beam source, and is designed to feed the filament from a feed reel. The guide is designed and arranged to guide the filament so that during the processing the segment of the filament inclines an angle with a vertical axis in the range from 0 to 45°.

The invention relates to a method for cutting off at least one portion (4), in particular a wafer, from a solid body (2). The method comprises at least the following steps: modifying the crystal lattice of the solid body (2) by means of a modifier (18), wherein a number of modifications (19) are produced to form a nonplanar, in particular convex, detachment region (8) in the interior of the solid body, wherein the modifications (19) are produced in accordance with predetermined parameters, wherein the predetermined parameters describe a relationship between a deformation of the portion (4) and a defined further treatment of the portion (4), detaching the portion (4) from the solid body (2).

Laser processing of hard dielectric materials may include cutting a part from a hard dielectric material using a continuous wave laser operating in a quasi-continuous wave (QCW) mode to emit consecutive laser light pulses in a wavelength range of about 1060 nm to 1070 nm. Cutting using a QCW laser may be performed with a lower duty cycle (e.g., between about 1% and 15%) and in an inert gas atmosphere such as nitrogen, argon or helium. Laser processing of hard dielectric materials may further include post-cut processing the cut edges of the part cut from the dielectric material, for example, by beveling and/or polishing the edges to reduce edge defects. The post-cut processing may be performed using a laser beam with different laser parameters than the beam used for cutting, for example, by using a shorter wavelength (e.g., 193 nm excimer laser) and/or a shorter pulse width (e.g., picosecond laser).

A laser patterning apparatus for a three-dimensional object includes a laser generator, a beam expander configured to adjust a size of a laser beam generated by the laser generator, a dynamic focusing module configured to adjust a z-axis focus position of the laser beam passing through the beam expander, a scan head configured to adjust x- and y-axis focus position of the laser beam passing through the beam expander, a shape recognizer configured to recognize a shape of a three-dimensional object, and a controller configured to extract x-, y-, and z-axis data of the three-dimensional object and to control the scan head and the dynamic focusing module, in order to pattern the three-dimensional object with the laser beam.

A method for producing a plurality of holes in a curved surface, wherein the individual holes are removed layer by layer, the first layers to be removed of the holes being arranged at different distances in a Z-direction of the laser, the holes each being processed in a specific focal position, wherein only the holes detected from the same focal position are processed.

Laser processing of hard dielectric materials may include cutting a part from a hard dielectric material using a continuous wave laser operating in a quasi-continuous wave (QCW) mode to emit consecutive laser light pulses in a wavelength range of about 1060 nm to 1070 nm. Cutting using a QCW laser may be performed with a lower duty cycle (e.g., between about 1% and 15%) and in an inert gas atmosphere such as nitrogen, argon or helium. Laser processing of hard dielectric materials may further include post-cut processing the cut edges of the part cut from the dielectric material, for example, by beveling and/or polishing the edges to reduce edge defects. The post-cut processing may be performed using a laser beam with different laser parameters than the beam used for cutting, for example, by using a shorter wavelength (e.g., 193 nm excimer laser) and/or a shorter pulse width (e.g., picosecond laser).

The invention relates to a method for thermally stable joining of a glass element to a support element, wherein the glass element has a first coefficient of expansion and the support element has a second coefficient of expansion differing from the first coefficient of expansion. The method thus comprises a step of attaching an intermediate glass material to the support element, wherein the intermediate glass material has a third coefficient of expansion which substantially corresponds to the second coefficient of expansion. In addition, the method comprises a step of local heating of the intermediate glass material in order to join the glass element to the support element via the intermediate glass material.