The surface damage morphologies of single crystal silicon induced by 1064nm millisecond Nd:YAG laser are investigated. After irradiation, the damage morphologies of silicon are inspected by optical microscope (OM) and atomic force microscope (AFM). The plasma emission spectra of the damaged region are detected by the spectrometer. It is shown that surface oxidation and nitridation have occurred during the interaction of millisecond laser with silicon. In addition, the damage morphologies induced by 2ms and 10ns pulse width laser are compared. The damage morphology obtained by 2ms laser is an evident crater. Three types of damage morphologies are formed at different laser energy densities. The circular concentric ripples are found surrounding the rim of the crater. The spacing of the ripples is 15 +/- 5 mu m. Two types of cracks are observed: linear crack and circular crack. The linear crack is observed in the center of the damaged region which propagates to the periphery of the damaged region. The circular crack is located at the rim of the crater. The damage morphology induced by 10ns laser is surface layer damage. The periodic linear waves are generated due to the interference between the incident beam and the scattered beam. The spacing of the ripples is 1.54 mu m which is close to the incident laser wavelength 1.064 mu m. The linear crack is located at the center of the damaged region. Furthermore, for the same laser energy density, the dimension of the damaged region and the crater depth induced by 2ms laser are greater than that of 10ns laser. It indicates that the damage mechanism under millisecond pulse laser irradiation is strongly different from the case of nanosecond pulse laser. (c) 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.