Simulations of particles which are emitted in laser ablation have been performed by the method of Direct Simulation Monte Carlo to investigate the deposition profiles of the emitted particles. The influences of the temperature, pressure and stream velocity of the initial evaporated layer formed during laser ablation process on the pro. le of the deposited film have been examined. It is found that the temperature gives a minor influence on the deposition pro. le, whereas the stream velocity and the pressure of the initial evaporated layer have a greater impact on the deposition pro. le. The energy in the direction of surface normal (E-perpendicular to) and that in the parallel direction of the surface (E-parallel to) are shown to increase and decrease, respectively after the laser irradiation due to collisions between the emitted particles, and this trend is magnified as the pressure increases. As a consequence, the stream velocity in the direction of surface normal increases with the increase in the pressure. A mechanism of the phenomenon that a metal with a lower sublimation energy shows a broader angular distribution of emitted particles is presented. It is suggested that low density of evaporated layer of a metal with a low sublimation energy at its melting point decreases the number of collisions in the layer, leading to the low stream velocity in the direction of surface normal, which results in the broader deposition pro. le of the emitted particles. (C) 2010 Elsevier B. V. All rights reserved.