Analysis of plasma-mediated ablation in aqueous tissue

► We postulate that a critical seed free electron density exists due to multiphoton ionization to trigger avalanche ionization. ► The evolution of plasma formation is solved analytically for the first time. ► The analysis is applied to ablation in corneal epithelium and validated via comparison with experimental data. ► This model is further extended to the estimation of crater size in the ablation of tissue-mimic PDMS.