Influence of Substrate Temperature in Plasma Assisted Pulsed Laser Deposition of Hydroxyapatite Thin Films

The bioactive properties of hydroxyapatite (HA) are well known in the implant industry and coatings of HA have been used to enhance the adhesion of living tissue to metal prostheses. Pulsed laser deposition (PLD) in a water vapour atmosphere is an appropriate method for the production of crystalline HA coatings. In this work the effect of RF plasma on thin films of HA grown by PLD at different substrate temperatures has been studied. The physicochemical properties of the films were studied by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), X-ray diffraction (XRD) and energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS), showing that the incorporation of RF discharge in the deposition chamber can lead to changes in the crystallinity and deposition rate of the films but substrate temperature still plays the most important role.