We propose a low cost technique for the production of diffractive optical elements (DOE). These elements are devoted to high power lasers beam shaping in the mid-infrared wavelengths. This process called laser ablation lithography (LAL), may seem similar to laser beam writing (LBW) in the way the whole DOE's design is reproduced pixel by pixel on the substrate placed on a computer controlled XY translation stage. A first difference is that the photoresist is not exposed with UV light but is directly ablated with short excimer laser pulses. Furthermore, with LAL technique the size of the smallest pixel (5 mum x 5 mum) is more than 10 times greater than those produced by LBW. We discuss in details the experimental set-up for LAL and demonstrate that it gives a resolution up to 10 times greater than photolithography with flexible masks. This makes LAL a promising solution for the production of DOE for use with Nd:YAG lasers. New applications of DOEs are finally introduced with high power lasers sources, such as laser marking or multi-point brazing. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.