Deposition of biopolymer thin films by matrix assisted pulsed laser evaporation

We report on the successful deposition of high quality type I fibrilar collagen thin films by Matrix assisted pulsed laser evaporation (MAPLE). Thin films deposition was performed in a N-2 ambient (20 Pa) using a KrF* laser source (lambda=248 nm,taugreater than or equal to20 ns) operated at a repetition rate of 3 Hz, the incident laser energy at a value within the range (20-35) mJ , and the laser spot area was (3.5-18.5)+/-0.1 mm(2). The collagen films were deposited on double face polished <100> single crystalline Si wafers and characterized by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, atomic force microscopy and high-resolution transmission electron microscopy. We demonstrate that our thin films are composed of collagen, with no impurities and the roughness can be controlled by the deposition conditions.