In the interaction between ultrafast laser pulses and a field emitter both optical and thermal processes are involved. In this paper, these physical process, and their timescales, are experimentally explored. Simple models are proposed to explain the observed experimental behaviour, and the influence of various parameters are investigated. In the case of optical processes, it is shown that the optical field is greatly enhanced at the tip apex, and that field evaporation could be induced by an optical non-linear effect called optical rectification. In the case of thermal processes, it is shown that the temperature rise because of light absorption can be determined and that the cooling process of the tip surface can be studied by pump probe measurements.