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Experimental investigation of laser surface texturing and related biocompatibility of pure titanium
While pure titanium is a material of choice for medical applications for its excellent mechanical and chemical properties, further improving its surface-related functionalities by surface texturing is also promising. In the present work, we experimentally investigate the fabrication, as well as the resulting functionalities of surface wettability and biocompatibility, of precise mesh-type surface textures on pure titanium by picosecond pulsed laser ablation operating at 1064 nm wavelength. Specifically, the dependence of microgroove morphology on average power and scanning speed is evaluated to yield optimized laser processing parameters, which are utilized to fabricate high precision mesh-type surface textures with uniform feature size and limited thermal effects on pure titanium. Subsequent performance evaluation tests demonstrate that the mesh-type surface textures induce a beneficial effect on the biocompatibility with respect to BMSC cells due to the enhanced hydrophilicity.