In the present study, the pulsed laser deposition technique was applied to coat titanium for orthopedic and dental implant applications. Iron-substituted hydroxyapatite (Fe-HAp) (0.28 wt.% of Fe) was used as coating material since titanium itself is unable to elicit biologically functional bone/material interface. The obtained Fe-HAp crystalline films are nanostructured (35 nm mean crystallite size) and possess the following characteristics: dense and compact microstructure, irregular surface with average roughness of about 0.3 pin, thickness of 1.5 pin and intrinsic Vickers microhardness of 17 GPa. (C) 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.