An experimental procedure is developed to quantify the radial dimension of the heat affected zone (HAZ) in metals submitted to laser pulses. A cube oriented aluminum single crystal is highly deformed by plane strain compression, then micro-drilled by 200 fs or 8 ns laser pulses, and finally analyzed by the electron back scattering diffraction technique. Recrystallized and recovered zones are observed as signatures of the HAZ. A typical value of 1.5 mum is found in the femtosecond regime of illumination, whereas for nanosecond pulses a value of 25 mum is measured. These results are in accordance with previous experiments and numerical simulations. (C) 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.