A laser system for hard body tissue ablation has a pumped laser, wherein the laser system is operated in pulsed operation with several individual pulses of a temporally limited pulse length and wherein the individual pulses follow one another with temporal pulse spacing. The pumped laser has an inversion population remaining time, the inversion population remaining time being the time within which, in the absence of pumping, the remaining inversion population of the laser energy status is reduced by 90%. The pulse spacing is in the range from 50 μs, inclusive, to the inversion population remaining time of ≧50 μs. The pulse length is selected to be in a pulse length range of ≧10 μs to ≦120 μs.
