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Science

Joining the laser welding club Laser welding is an integral part of modern manufacturing, but it fractures ceramic materials. Penilla et al. developed two methods for welding ceramics using ultrafast lasers. One method tunes the ceramic properties, allowing the laser to transit through the ceramic and weld at the interface between pieces. The other method optimizes a gap between pieces to efficiently deposit energy. Both methods leverage short but energetic pulses to create a melt pool that allows ceramics to be joined, without the high temperature used for traditional ceramic welds. Science , this issue p. 803

Ultrafast laser welding of ceramics