Embodiments of the invention provide a method and apparatus for laser-processing a material. In the method and apparatus, a diffraction-limited beam of pulsed laser radiation is diffracted by a diffraction device to generate a diffracted beam of pulsed laser radiation. The diffracted beam is subsequently focused onto the material and is controlled in time and space to irradiate the material at a target position with radiation from a set of radiation pulses of the diffracted beam so that each radiation pulse from the set of radiation pulses is incident at the target position with a cross-sectional portion of the diffracted beam, the cross-sectional portion including a local intensity maximum of the diffracted beam. The beam cross-sectional portions of at least a subset of the pulses of the set include each a different local intensity maximum. In this way, a multi-pulse application for generating a photo-disruption at a target location of the material can be implemented.
