Method of bonding substrates and separating a portion of the bonded substrates through the bond, such as to manufacture an array of liquid lenses and separate the array into individual liquid lenses

A method of forming a bond between substrates and manipulating the bond, the method comprising:

• emitting a first laser energy onto a length and a width of a strip of an absorption material disposed between a first substrate and a second substrate until the strip of the absorption material diffuses into the first substrate and the second substrate resulting in a bond between the first substrate and the second substrate, thereby creating a workpiece comprising the first substrate bonded to the second substrate through the bond, the bond having a length and a width at least approximating the length and the width of the strip before the strip is diffused;
• emitting a second laser energy through the workpiece at the bond to create a fault line through the first substrate and the second substrate, the second laser energy provided by an approximated Bessel beam, the approximated Bessel beam incident upon the bond having a diameter that is greater than the width of the bond;
• and
• repeating emitting the second laser energy step along the length of the bond to create a series of fault lines forming a contour.