Using of middle IR lasers for guided termocleavage of glass

Method of guided termocleavage of glass, was developed in 80-th(1) and found wide expansion in precession breaking of glass for displays, that is proved with appropriate equipment and a wide variety of publications(1-2). There are few advantages of this method: high speed of cutting; high accuracy in processing; low power intensity of process; high purity of process, cause of wastelessness of cutting process; zero width of cut. Feature of this method is that cutting of glass is executed due to making of separating split under the voltage of straining, caused of the heating of material with laser radiation and next freezing of zone of heat using refrigerating medium(1-2). The existing termocleavage technologies by means of infra-red (IR) lasers - CO2 and Nd have some insuperable constraints such as: the problem of intersection of through-the-thickness crack across previously made by laser, the problem of guided thermocrack drift from linearity upon laser emission input and output into glass samples and others problems. We offer to use other laser radiation sources for overcoming these problems. Preview analyze showed, that the most optimal laser sources are lasers with the spectrum in the field of translucency of glasses (2-7 micron).© (2008) COPYRIGHT SPIE--The International Society for Optical Engineering. Downloading of the abstract is permitted for personal use only.