US 12,145,216 B2
Systems and methods for laser cleaving diamonds
Lee Bassett, Wallingford, PA (US); Samuel Parks, Philadelphia, PA (US); Richard Grote, Los Angeles, CA (US); and David Hopper, Philadelphia, PA (US)
Assigned to THE TRUSTEES OF THE UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA, Philadelphia, PA (US)
Appl. No. 16/613,410
Filed by The Trustees of the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA (US)
PCT Filed May 15, 2018, PCT No. PCT/US2018/032742
§ 371(c)(1), (2) Date Nov. 13, 2019,
PCT Pub. No. WO2018/213294, PCT Pub. Date Nov. 22, 2018.
Claims priority of provisional application 62/506,396, filed on May 15, 2017.
Prior Publication US 2020/0164469 A1, May 28, 2020
Int. Cl. B23K 26/53 (2014.01); B23K 26/082 (2014.01); B23K 26/402 (2014.01); B23K 103/00 (2006.01)
CPC B23K 26/53 (2015.10) [B23K 26/082 (2015.10); B23K 26/402 (2013.01); B23K 2103/50 (2018.08)] 15 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
1. A method for forming a cleaved surface of a diamond, the method comprising:
forming an initial cleave line in the diamond, which is located in an x-y-z coordinate system having orthogonal x, y, and z axes, by scanning, in in an x direction of the coordinate system, a laser beam extending through the diamond from a first surface of the diamond located in a first plane parallel to an x-y plane in the coordinate system to a second surface of the diamond located in a second plane parallel to the first plane and spaced in a z direction of the coordinate system from the first plane; and
forming a plurality of additional cleave lines in the diamond by incrementally repositioning the laser beam in a y direction in the coordinate system along a cleaving surface and scanning, in the x direction, the laser beam at each incremental position, wherein scanning the laser beam in the x direction includes translating the laser beam in the x direction while the laser beam is active and extending in the z direction from the first surface to the second surface of the diamond;
wherein the initial cleave line and the plurality of additional cleave lines comprise cracks extending from the first surface to the second surface that define the cleaved surface of the diamond and the initial cleave line and the plurality of additional cleave lines are angularly offset from the z direction in which the laser beam extends from the first surface to the second surface and the cleaved surface comprises a surface in a 111 crystallographic plane tilted from the z axis in the x direction and extending from the first surface to the second surface of the diamond.