The possible manifestations of thermodynamical instability (explosive vaporisation) are discussed for different regimes of laser heating of the metal/transparent liquid system. The present calculations show that the explosive vaporisation in the metastable region may occur if the nucleation rate is high enough. This condition is achievable if the surface tension of the superheated liquid tends to zero near the spinodal. It is also shown that the dependence of the phase explosion time on laser intensity markedly changes its behaviour when the water temperature reaches the spinodal. (c) 2005 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.