title: Hydroxyapatite coatings: a comparative study between plasma-spray and pulsed laser deposition techniques.
abstract: A comparative study between hydroxyapatite coatings produced by two different techniques, plasma spray (PS) and pulsed-laser deposition (PLD) was carried out. Plasma spray is currently commercially used for coating dental and orthopaedical implant devices, and pulsed-laser deposition (or laser-ablation deposition) gave good results in the field of high critical temperature superconductive thin films, and is being applied to produce calcium phosphate coatings for biomedical purposes. X-ray diffraction was used to control the crystallinity of the coatings, scanning electron microscopy for the surface and cross-sectional morphology, and the pull test to determine the tensile strength of the coatings. This study reveals that the pulsed-laser deposition technique appears to be a very good candidate to replace the plasma spray in many biomedical applications, because it overcomes most of the drawbacks of the plasma spray.
authors.affiliation: Departamento de Física Aplicada, Universidade de Vigo, Lagoas-Macrosende 9, 36.200 Vigo, Spain.
authors.forename: F J
authors.initials: FJ
authors.lastname: García-Sanz
authors.forename: M B
authors.initials: MB
authors.lastname: Mayor
authors.forename: J L
authors.initials: JL
authors.lastname: Arias
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Pou
authors.forename: B
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: León
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Pérez-Amor