Recently, interest in the preparation of hydroxyapatite (HA) (Ca 10 (PO 4 ) 6 (OH) 2 ) coatings on biomedical titanium and its alloy (Ti6Al4V) has evolved in the research of dental materials and artificial bone implants. [1][2][3][4][5][6] However, as the thermal expansion coefficient of Ti6Al4V is $8.53-9.5 Â 10 À6 K À1 while that of HA is about 15 Â 10 À6 K À1 , the thermal-expansion coefficients between the two materials could lead to excessive residual stresses in the coatings and consequent lay great limits to the repair of bone defects. One way to overcome these problems is the use of functionally gradient coatings (FGCs). In an FGC, an intermediate layer with a gradual compositional variation is applied between the top coating and the substrate. Compared with regular multicomponent coatings, FGCs can effectively reduce the discontinuity of the thermal-expansion coefficients between the materials, and minimize the residual stresses in the coatings. Then, the useful life of the coatings can be improved.So far, various techniques, such as plasma spraying, [7,8] magnetron sputtering, [9,10] laser ablation, [11,12] sol-gel, [13,14] electrolytic deposition [15][16][17] and biomimetic strategies, [18] have been employed to prepare HA coatings. Of these, radiofrequency (RF) magnetron sputtering has the advantages of high deposition rate, relatively low sputtering temperature, uniform coating and high binding strength. Therefore, RF magnetron sputtering of HA coatings has attracted considerable attention in recent years. Ding et al. [19] reported that a monolithic-HA coating on Ti6Al4V prepared by RF magnetron sputtering has a bond strength of 59.9 MPa, which is believed to be greater than that produced by any other coating techniques. However, the monolithic-HA coating was a loosely bonded, granular-shaped structure and had a number of surface cracks. They developed a new multilayered coating by alternately depositing Ti and HA layers on Ti6Al4V substrates using RF magnetron sputtering to improve the interface properties between the coating and the substrate. [9] The multilayered coating had a higher binding strength and better immersion behavior in simulated body fluid (SBF) than the monolithic-HA coating.Zirconia (ZrO 2 ), and especially yttria-stabilized zirconia (YSZ), with its favorable biocompatibility and a thermal expansion coefficient of about 8.0 Â 10 À6 K À1 , has the attributes of high strength and stress-induced phase-transformation toughening, and has been used to reinforce hydroxyapatite coatings and to improve the bond strength of HA coatings. [20] Khor et al. [21] developed HA/YSZ/Ti6Al4V composite coatings that have superior mechanical properties to conventional plasma-sprayed HA coatings. To the best of our knowledge, reports on the preparation of gradient HA/YSZ coatings on Ti6Al4V by RF magnetron sputtering are scarce. The objective of this work is to explore the possibility of preparing gradient HA/YSZ coatings on Ti6Al4V by RF magnetron sputtering and to examine their immersion behavior afte...