HYDROXYAPATITE COATINGS - A COMPARATIVE-STUDY BETWEEN PLASMA-SPRAY AND PULSED-LASER DEPOSITION TECHNIQUES

A comparative study between hydroxyapatite coatings produced by two di fferent techniques, plasma spray (PS) and pulsed-laser deposition (PLD ) was carried out. Plasma spray is currently commercially used for coa ting dental and orthopaedical implant devices, and pulsed-laser deposi tion (or laser-ablation deposition) gave good results in the field of high critical temperature superconductive thin films, and is being app lied 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 morp hology, and the pull test to determine the tensile strength of the coa tings. This study reveals that the pulsed-laser deposition technique a ppears to be a very good candidate to replace the plasma spray in many biomedical applications, because it overcomes most of the drawbacks o f the plasma spray.