Cutting glass with photons

Abstract A comprehensive report is provided here about the state of the art and recent advances in cutting glass with ultrashort pulsed lasers. Several optical concepts are discussed that enable single‐pass, full thickness modification of transparent articles in the most diverse geometries, such as architectural glass or glass tubes. We also highlight the trend towards tailored glass edges for substrate protection with laser‐fabricated chamfers. A completely new beam‐shaping concept is used here, in which a large number of focus copies are distributed along any edge shape in order to combine cutting and chamfering within a single laser process.