Modeling of pulsedlaser cleaning of metal optical surfaces at cryogenic temperatures Summary Abstract: Ion bombardment cleaning of liquid gallium surfaces mate agreement with the measured rise times, which however is improved by a reduction of T to 1.3.The simple exponential rise of the output was maintained when the rise time was as small as 0.3 ,usec. This observation justifies the assumption made in deriving Eq.(2), that the gain is able to change rapidly in response to a change of the radiation density. If this were not the case, then following a decrease of the loss coefficient, the output would first increase, and then decrease again as the gain adjusted to the increased radiation density. As no overshoot was observed it is concluded that the gain responded to radiation density changes in less than 0.3 ,usec.It is shown that high power, Q-spoiled lasers offer an interesting method for obtaining clean surfaces in vacuum. However, complete removal of oxygen and sulfur contamination from nickel surfaces by laser bombardment at 100 MW /cm 2 produced irreparable surface damage that is attributed to filamentizing of the laser beam and/or to nonuniform surface reflectivity. On the other hand, application of the technique at 30 MW/cm 2 successfully removed the (7X7) satellite structure from (111) silicon surfaces without surface damage.