Filtern
Dokumenttyp
Sprache
- Englisch (3) (entfernen)
Referierte Publikation
- nein (3) (entfernen)
Schlagworte
- Applications (2)
- Laser-induced periodic surface structures (LIPSS) (2)
- Surface functionalization (2)
- Cell-repellent surfaces (1)
- Electrochemical treatment (1)
- Femtosecond laser ablation (1)
- Femtosecond laser-processing (1)
- Laser processing (1)
- Laser-induced micro- and nanostructures (1)
- Medical implants (1)
Organisationseinheit der BAM
- 6 Materialchemie (3) (entfernen)
The invention of new miniaturized and smart medical implants continues in all medical fields, including miniaturized heart pacemakers. These implants often come with a titanium (Ti) casing, which may have to be removed after several months or years and shall therefore not be completely overgrown by cells or scar tissue after implantation. Scar tissue is mainly formed by fibroblast cells and extracellular matrix proteins like collagen produced by them. Suppression of fibroblast growth at Ti surfaces could be achieved by 800 nm femtosecond laser-ablation creating self-organized sharp spikes with dimensions in the 10 μm-range which are superposed by fine sub-μm parallel ripples. On flat Ti control samples, the best results regarding suppression of cell growth were obtained on spike-structures which were additionally electrochemically anodized under acidic conditions. When Ti cylinders with a diameter of 8 mm (similar as the pacemakers) were placed upright in a culture of murine fibroblasts, a multi-layer cell growth up to a height of at least 1.5 mm occurred within 19–22 days. We have demonstrated that a laser-structured and anodized ring around the Ti cylinder surface is an effective way to create a barrier that murine fibroblasts were not able to overgrow within this time.
In recent years, the improved understanding of the formation of laser-induced periodic surface structures (LIPSS) has led to an emerging variety of applications that modify the optical, mechanical and chemical properties of many materials. Such structures strongly depend on the laser beam polarization and are formed usually after irradiation with ultrashort linearly polarized laser pulses. The most accepted explanation for the origin of the structures is based on the interference of the incident laser radiation with electromagnetic surface waves that propagate or scatter at the surface of the irradiated materials. This leads to an intensity modulation that is finally responsible for the selective ablation in the form of parallel structures with periods ranging from hundreds of nanometers up to some micrometers. The versatility when forming such structures is based on the high reproducibility with different wavelength, pulse duration and repetition rate laser sources, customized micro- and nanometric spatial resolutions, and the compatibility with industrially relevant processing speeds when combined with fast scanning devices. In this contribution, we review the latest applications in the rapidly emerging field of surface functionalization through LIPSS, including biomimetic functionalities on fluid transport, control of the wetting properties, specific optical responses in technical materials, improvement of tribological performance on metallic surfaces and bacterial and cell growth for medical devices, among many others.
Laser-induced periodic surface structures (LIPSS, ripples) are a universal phenomenon that can be observed on almost any material after the irradiation by linearly polarized laser beams, particularly when using ultrashort laser pulses with durations in the femtosecond to picosecond range. During the past years significantly increasing industrial and research activities have been reported in the field of LIPSS, since their generation in a single-step process provides a simple way of nanostructuring and surface functionalization towards the control of optical, mechanical or chemical surface properties. In this contribution the mechanisms of formation and current trends and applications of LIPSS are reviewed, including the colorization of technical surfaces, the control of surface wetting properties, the mimicry of the natural texture of animals, the tailoring of surface colonization by bacterial biofilms, the advancement of leadless medical pacemakers, and the improvement of the tribological performance of nanostructured metal surfaces.