This paper concentrates on the characterisation of the ablation process of thin strain sensitive NiCr films deposited on Al2O3 substrates. The optical skin depth of NiCr (80/20) is identified. Removal experiments with single and multiple pulse point ablations are carried out on Al2O3 bulk substrates with different NiCr thicknesses. The experiments reveal the maximum NiCr film thickness for single pulse ablation. NiCr films with a higher thickness have to be processed in a multiple pulse processing strategy. Calculation of the beam radii using Liu plots revealed radii larger than the actual measured beam radius. The radius increase has been identified to consist of two parameters, one representing a special jitter of the experimental setup used, and a second thickness dependent parameter.