Glass tube cutting for medical applications using ultrashort-pulsed lasers

We report on the separation of complex inner and outer contours from glass articles with curved surfaces using ultrashort pulsed lasers. To achieve single-pass, full-thickness modifications along the entire substrate a processing optics is presented that allows for beam shaping of non-diffracting beams and, additionally, for aberration compensation of phase distortions occurring at the curved interface. The glass articles finally separated by thermal stress or via selective laser etching meet the demands of the medical industry in terms of micro-debris, surface quality and processing speed.