title: Mammalian fibroblast cells show strong preference for laser-generated hybrid amorphous silicon-SiO2 textures.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  In this study, we investigated a method to produce bioactive hybrid amorphous silicon and silicon oxide patterns using nanosecond laser pulses.
  
  
  METHODS
  Microscale line patterns were made by laser pulses on silicon wafers at different frequencies (25, 70 and 100 kHz), resulting in ablation patterns with frequency-dependent physical and chemical properties.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Incubating the laser-treated silicon substrates with simulated body fluid demonstrated that the physicochemical properties of the laser-treated samples were stable under these conditions, and favored the deposition of bone-like apatite. More importantly, while NIH 3T3 fibroblasts did colonize the untreated regions of the silicon wafers, they showed a strong preference for the laser-treated regions, and further discriminated between substrates treated with different frequencies.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Taken together, these data suggest that laser materials processing of silicon-based devices is a promising avenue to pursue in the production of biosensors and other bionic devices.
authors.affiliation:  Silicon Hall, Laser Micro/Nano Fabrication Facility, Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of New Brunswick, Fredericton, New Brunswick - Canada.
authors.forename: Candace
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Colpitts
authors.affiliation:  Silicon Hall, Laser Micro/Nano Fabrication Facility, Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of New Brunswick, Fredericton, New Brunswick - Canada.| Department of Biology, University of New Brunswick, Fredericton, New Brunswick - Canada.
authors.forename: Amin M
authors.initials: AM
authors.lastname: Ektesabi
authors.affiliation:  Department of Biology, University of New Brunswick, Fredericton, New Brunswick - Canada.
authors.forename: Rachael A
authors.initials: RA
authors.lastname: Wyatt
authors.affiliation:  Department of Biology, University of New Brunswick, Fredericton, New Brunswick - Canada.
authors.forename: Bryan D
authors.initials: BD
authors.lastname: Crawford
authors.affiliation:  Silicon Hall, Laser Micro/Nano Fabrication Facility, Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of New Brunswick, Fredericton, New Brunswick - Canada.
authors.forename: Amirkianoosh
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Kiani
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D007834:Lasers; D008422:Materials Testing; D051379:Mice; D041681:NIH 3T3 Cells; D012825:Silicon / Q000737:chemistry*; D012822:Silicon Dioxide / Q000737:chemistry*
chemical_list: D012822:Silicon Dioxide; D012825:Silicon