Household and industrial ceramics yes, and we're talking single beam lasers here, not arrays of several lasers like the National Ignition Facility. The largest industrial lasers can generate about 1,000 degrees Kelvin of heat, enough to cut steel and other metals.
One technique that I know of is called "controlled fracture" and requires 2 lasers together. This process can cut more than an 1" of ceramic material using a CO2 and Nd:YAG combined.. 1 fractures the other cuts.
Many cutting "lasers" cut with similar actions combining 2-3 different lasers filled with different gasses..O2 Nit xenon...etc
Now if you wanna talk lab lasers look up L. Livermore I think they have the record at the moment of 10mil kelvin or so
I have an interest in Lasers as my best friends father is one of the "Laser Gods" here in the states and they are just cool. His latest patent was for a laser that could could count and program stem cells as the are administered through a catheter.
Here is an old 110v neon laser I brought home the other day to fix ...It's a kit laser from the late 80's. These can still be used in laser array setup testing.... before really getting things dialed in.
Lasers have come along way since then in contrast here is the latest china key chain model 3v that has higher output and I'm sure most of you have seen models for handguns.
I think you should look at all laser tech by this example.
Don't worry you guys wont have to worry about the "Death Star" for a little while longer
http://www.ibtimes.com/white-house-rejects-death-star-petition-doomsday-devices-us-could-build-instead-1014682
