The Pulsed Electron Deposition Technique for Biomedical Applications: A Review

The “pulsed electron deposition” (PED) technique, in which a solid target material is ablated by a fast, high-energy electron beam, was initially developed two decades ago for the deposition of thin films of metal oxides for photovoltaics, spintronics, memories, and superconductivity, and dielectric polymer layers. Recently, PED has been proposed for use in the biomedical field for the fabrication of hard and soft coatings. The first biomedical application was the deposition of low wear zirconium oxide coatings on the bearing components in total joint replacement. Since then, several works have reported the manufacturing and characterization of coatings of hydroxyapatite, calcium phosphate substituted (CaP), biogenic CaP, bioglass, and antibacterial coatings on both hard (metallic or ceramic) and soft (plastic or elastomeric) substrates. Due to the growing interest in PED, the current maturity of the technology and the low cost compared to other commonly used physical vapor deposition techniques, the purpose of this work was to review the principles of operation, the main applications, and the future perspectives of PED technology in medicine.

A Novel Approach for Fabricating LaMnO3 Thin Films Using Combined Microwave Combustion and Pulsed Electron Deposition Techniques

LaMnO3 (LMO) nanopowder was synthesized by the microwave combustion method using glycine and nitrate salts of La and Mn as precursors. The as-prepared LMO powder was pressed at high pressure and annealed at 1000°C for 8 hours to make a target for thin film deposition. The structural and elemental analysis was obtained by X-ray diffraction (XRD) and energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS). Thin films of LMO were fabricated using pulsed electron deposition (PED) at room temperature. The effects of discharge voltage and oxygen/argon flux ratio on the produced thin films were studied. The study shows that stoichiometry and structure of the target was preserved well in the thin films prepared with a discharge voltage from 14 to 15 kV, while the oxygen/nitrogen flux ratio did not show a clear effect on the quality of thin films.

Gas Sensing Properties of In2O3 Nano-Films Obtained by Low Temperature Pulsed Electron Deposition Technique on Alumina Substrates

Nanostructured Indium(III) oxide (In2O3) films deposited by low temperature pulsed electron deposition (LPED) technique on customized alumina printed circuit boards have been manufactured and characterized as gas sensing devices. Their electrical properties have monitored directly during deposition to optimize their sensing performance. Experimental results with oxidizing (NO2) as well as reducing (CO) gases in both air and inert gas carriers are discussed and modeled.