Laser welding of sapphire wafers using a thin-film fresnoite glass solder

Two sapphire substrates are tightly bonded through a fresnoite-glass thin film, by irradiation with a 1,064 nm nanosecond laser. The composition of the glass solder at the bond interface changes, due to incorporation of Al from the upper substrate. The oxidic solder remains amorphous after laser irradiation, but after annealing (850 A degrees C for 1 h) crystalline structures are observed in different morphologies, which are attributed not only to fresnoite, but also to Ba-Ti-Al-O phases, which lead to a strong luminescence of the laser irradiated region under UV excitation.