Crater shapes and plasma plume expansion in the interaction of sharply focused laser beams (10 μm waist diameter, 60 fs–6 ns pulse duration) with metals in air at atmospheric pressure were studied. Laser ablation efficiencies and rates of plasma expansion were determined. The best ablation efficiency was observed with femtosecond laser pulses. It was found that for nanosecond pulses, the laser beam absorption, its scattering, and its reflection in plasma were the limiting factors for efficient laser ablation and precise material sampling with sharply focused laser beams. The experimental results obtained were analyzed with relation to different theoretical models of laser ablation.
