Transparent Materials

The processing of materials like glass, which shows a high transparency in the visible regime, is possible when the laser pulse is sufficiently absorbed. Focused ultrashort laser pulses with pulse durations <10 ps can lead to such high intensities in the focal volume that nonlinear phenomena enable the necessary absorption of the laser pulse energy. Thus, a processing of transparent dielectric materials is possible with ultrafast lasers. The properties of ultrashort laser pulses enable different processing techniques to manufacture surface or in-volume modifications. By this, laser processing can be used for processes like cutting of glass or waveguide generation for integrated optics. This chapter discusses the laser processing of transparent dielectrics with ultrashort laser pulses.