Laser Ablation of Biomaterials

Biomaterials, defined by high biocompatibility and biodegradability, are intensively used in medical applications, mainly to replace partial or total, damaged or destroyed hard or soft tissues. Most of them are used not only as coatings for implant coverage but also as parts for some medical devices. In the last decades, researchers sought to find the optimum processing methods and parameters to modify or deposit the biomaterial of interest. An important family of techniques, used to process a biomaterial, is represented by laser techniques, based upon laser ablation phenomenon. Laser ablation of biomaterials ensures the transference or modification with good precision and without or with minimal disruptions generated. To obtain thin coatings from biomaterials, one can use deposition techniques: pulsed laser deposition (PLD) or matrix-assisted pulsed laser evaporation (MAPLE). These techniques are chosen according to the selected biomaterial and desired performances of the obtained coating. Therefore, some sensitive biomaterials can be transferred only by MAPLE. Some results in the field of calcium phosphates deposited by PLD or MAPLE are presented, proving the usefulness of these biomaterials for medical applications.