Features of Laser Through-Cutting of Silicate Glass by a Fiber Ytterbium Laser

Abstract

Some principal aspects of silicate glass cutting by controlled laser through thermal cleavage are considered. In particular, it is shown that the cutting speed in the case of ytterbium fiber laser radiation with a wavelength of 1.065 μm lying in fact in the glass transmission range (more precisely, in the low absorption region) depends linearly on the laser power. It is shown that the glass end face takes various geometrical shapes under various conditions of bulk heating and cooling. Therefore, to obtain a homogeneous end face, it is required to stabilize both the laser radiation power and the laser beam speed at a corresponding laser beam geometry in the cut region. Methods for obtaining various cross section shapes of the glass end face and methods for obtaining blunt edges of end faces are presented.