  The mechanism of ablation of solids by intense femtosecond laser pulses is
described in an explicit analytical form. It is shown that at high intensities
when the ionization of the target material is complete before the end of the
pulse, the ablation mechanism is the same for both metals and dielectrics. The
physics of this new ablation regime involves ion acceleration in the
electrostatic field caused by charge separation created by energetic electrons
escaping from the target. The formulae for ablation thresholds and ablation
rates for metals and dielectrics, combining the laser and target parameters,
are derived and compared to experimental data. The calculated dependence of the
ablation thresholds on the pulse duration is in agreement with the experimental
data in a femtosecond range, and it is linked to the dependence for nanosecond
pulses.
