Shaped femtosecond laser pulses with the plain phase (transform-limited pulse) and sine phase (A=1.2566, T=30, T=10, and T= 5) were used to drill Al sheet in vacuum. Using different phase, the number of pulses required to drill through the sheet was different. With lower laser pulse energy, the ablation rate was the highest when plain phase (corresponding to transform limited pulse) was used. With higher laser energy, the optimized ablation rate can be achieved by increasing the time separation between the subpulses of pulse train produced from the sine phase function. And, with the shaped femtosecond laser, the diameter of ablation holes produced was smaller, the ablation precision was also improved. The results showed that shaped femtosecond laser pulse has great advantages in the context of femtosecond laser drilling. (C) 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.