Biomedical response of tantalum oxide films deposited by DC reactive unbalanced magnetron sputtering

Abstract Tantalum oxide (Ta–O) films have been widely used as dielectric, optoelectronics and high temperature resistance materials. But the biological response of the Ta–O films is rarely studied. In this paper, the biomedical properties of Ta–O films were studied. Tantalum oxide films were deposited on Si(100) and glass substrate at different oxygen-to-argon ratios by DC reactive unbalanced magnetron sputtering. The structure, blood compatibility, surface energy and semiconductor properties were studied. The results showed that the Ta–O films were amorphous and its optical band-gap increased from 3.65 eV to 3.95 eV with increasing oxygen pressure. The surface energy of Ta–O films were about 40–46 mJ/m2. The low surface energy, and low dispersive energy were the reasons of their better blood compatibility. There were less platelet adhered and aggregated at the Ta–O film which deposited at O2/Ar ratio 0.4, and it had better antithrombotic properties.