  We provide measurements of ablation of four post-transition and transition
metals (aluminum, copper, nickel and tungsten) irradiated by single 800 nm
laser pulses, in ultrashort regime from 100 fs pulse duration down to 15 fs
covering a temporal range little explored yet. For each metal and pulse
duration tested, we measure its ablation characteristics (depth and diameter)
as a function of incident energy allowing us to determine its laser-induced
ablation threshold and ablation rate in single-shot regime. For all metals
studied, we observe constant ablation threshold fluence as a function of pulse
duration extending this scaling law to pulse duration of few-optical-cycles. We
also provide evidence of the interest of adjusting the incident fluence to
maximize the energy specific ablation depth but also of the absence of any
peculiar advantage related to the use of extremely short pulse duration for
ablation purposes. Those informative and detailed ablation data have been
obtained in single pulse regime and in air ambiance. They can serve as
rewarding feedback for further establishing smart strategy for femtosecond
laser micromachining and laser damage handling of metallic and metal-based
components as well as for enhancing accuracy of modeling of femtosecond laser
interaction with metals in ultrashort regime.
