Holing of lithium iron phosphate (LiFePO4, LFP) cathodes with a pico-second pulsed laser, in which the average hole diameter and hole opening rate were 20-30 mu m and 1-2%, respectively, enabled to retain the high-rate discharging performance even in the LFP cathodes composed of the having the LFP layer with the thickness of over 40 mu m on an aluminum current collector. The conventional and flat LFP cathode exhibited the degradation of discharge retention at the high-rate discharge because of the low utilization of LFP materials in the case of the thick cathode layer. On the other hand, in the case of "through-holed" and "non-through-holed" LFP cathodes, there can be a more efficient insertion/deinsertion of Li+ ions to/from the LFP materials through the holes formed in the LFP layer, resulting in retaining the high-rate charging/discharging performance even in thick LFP cathodes. The electrochemical impedance spectroscopy analysis confirmed that the formation of through-holes in the thick LFP layer is significantly effective to improve the high-rate discharging performance as a result of the decreased charge-transfer resistance of the LFP discharge process. The decrease in the charge-transfer resistance results from the increase in the area available in the LFP discharge process because the sidewalls of the holes can also take part in the Li+ ion transfer during the discharge process. (C) 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.