A plasma model proposed by Jiang and Tsai was applied to the experimental results for wide band-gap materials. The model fairly well predicted the laser-fluence dependences of the hole depth and diameter. The analytical threshold fluence represented the pulse-duration dependence very well. However, the model was insufficient to express the crater shape and to predict the threshold fluence. Deviations from the measurements suggest that the effect of ponderomotive force should be taken into account to improve the expression for the crater shape and that the surface energy needed to be additionally taken into account to predict the threshold fluence quantitatively. (C) 2012 Elsevier B. V. All rights reserved.