Etching of Y‐Ba‐Cu‐O superconducting thin films has been accomplished using a pulsed excimer laser (248 nm, 30 ns). Etch depth as a function of the number of laser pulses was linear over a wide range of incident laser energy densities. An etch threshold energy density of 0.11 J/cm2was observed and etch rate per pulse scaled linearly with the logarithm of the incident energy density. The dependence is adequately explained by a linear absorption model with an inverse absorption length of 2.3×105cm−1.