A novel laser etching technique utilizing an optical fiber as the laser beam guide is introduced. Depending upon whether a pulsed or a continuous wave (CW) laser is employed as the irradiation source, it was found that the etch depth and surface morphology of the grooves varied significantly. It was then demonstrated that deep microgrooves with smooth sidewalls can be obtained using a hybrid pulse and CW scanning process. The results of laser heating and chemical analyses revealed that sidewall roughness of the microgroove is mainly attributed to surface melting. (C) 2009 Elsevier B. V. All rights reserved.