Apparatus for material processing, which apparatus comprises a rare-earth doped fibre (1), a laser diode source (2), a short pulse laser (18) and a controller (9), wherein the rare-earth doped fibre (1) is pumped by the laser diode source (2) to provide optical radiation (10), and the optical radiation (10) emitted by the rare-earth doped fibre (1) is combined with optical radiation (11) emitted by the short pulse laser (18), the apparatus being characterised in that the controller (9) synchronizes the optical radiation (10) emitted from the rare-earth doped fibre (1) with the optical radiation (11) emitted by the short pulse laser (18) to provide a plurality of pulses (5) comprising a pre-pulse (21) and a main pulse (22), the average peak power (23) of the pre-pulse (21) being greater than the peak power (24) of the main pulse (22).