An ophthalmic surgical pulse control apparatus has a pulse generator, which, during a switch-on duration of the pulse generator, generates pulses having a pulse duration during which a needle of a phacoemulsification handpiece substantially vibrates at resonance and which, during a switch-on duration of the pulse generator, produces pulse pauses having a pulse pause duration during which the needle vibrates only minimally or not at all. A pulse with a follow-on pulse pause forms a pulse packet having a pulse packet duration. The pulse generator generates pulse packets which immediately follow one another and the sequence of the values of pulse duration and pulse pause duration of sequential pulse packets during the entire switch-on duration of the pulse generator is an aperiodic sequence.
