The industrial maturity of ultrashort pulsed lasers has triggered the development of a plethora of material processing strategies. Recently, the combination of these remarkable temporal pulse properties with advanced structured light concepts has led to breakthroughs in the development of laser application methods, which will now gradually reach industrial environments. We review the efficient generation of customized focus distributions from the near-infrared down to the deep ultraviolet, e.g., based on nondiffracting beams and threedimensional-beam splitters, and demonstrate their impact for micro-and nanomachining of a wide range of materials. In the beam shaping concepts presented, special attention was paid to suitability for both high energies and high powers.

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Pico-and femtosecond lasers with kilowatt average power levels that are also capable of providing multi-mJ pulse energies will be described. Well established 24/7 industrial ultrafast laser processes allow for an outlook on potential future applications.

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