Laser ablation efficiency of metal samples with UV laser nanosecond pulses

Abstract Laser ablation of pure metals by nanosecond UV pulses is studied experimentally. The influence of laser pulse number, matter properties and pulse energy on the crater sizes was investigated. The experimental results obtained in the range 0.5 to 50 GW/cm 2 , in air at atmospheric pressure are presented and compared with an existing model. A sufficiently good correlation was observed between melting temperature and ablation efficiency.