Laser ablation of pure metals by nanosecond UV pulses is studied experiment
ally. The influence of laser pulse number, matter properties and pulse ener
gy on the crater sizes war investigated The experimental results obtained i
n the range 0.5 to 50 GW/cm(2), in air at atmospheric pressure are presente
d and compared with an existing model. A sufficiently good correlation was
observed between melting temperature and ablation efficiency. (C) 1999 Else
vier Science B.V. All rights reserved.