A Nd:YAG pulsed laser is used to ablate HgCdTe target at different ambient pressures, the emission spectrum is detected by a time- and space-resolved diagnostic technique. It is found that the characteristics of time-resolved emission spectra are influenced by the pressure of background gas. A theoretical model is developed to investigate expansion mechanism of plasma, the time evolution of the propagation distances and the velocities of plasma plume are calculated by the model at pressures of 101000, 1000, and 5 Pa, respectively. The calculated results are well consistent with the experimental data.