Femtosecond Laser Creates True 'Black Metal'

Scientists at the University of Rochester have created a way to
change the properties of almost any metal to render it, literally,
black.

The process, using an incredibly intense burst of laser light, holds
the promise of making everything from fuel cells to a space
telescope's detectors more efficient—not to mention turning your
car into the blackest black around.

"We've been surprised by the number of possible applications
for this," says Chunlei Guo, assistant professor of optics at the
University of Rochester.
"We wanted to see what would happen to a metal's properties under
different laser conditions and we stumbled on this way to completely
alter the reflective properties of metals."

The key to creating black metal is an ultra-brief, ultra-intense beam
of light called a femtosecond laser pulse.
The laser burst lasts only a few quadrillionths of a second.
To get a grasp of that kind of speed—a femtosecond is to a second
what a second is to about 32 million years.

During its brief burst, Guo's laser unleashes as much power as the
entire grid of North America onto a spot the size of a needle point.
That intense blast forces the surface of the metal to form and
nanostructures—pits, globules, and strands that both dramatically
increase the area of the surface and capture radiation.
Some larger structures also form in subsequent blasts.


SOURCE:
Rochester.edu

This is a pretty cool development, and even better that it
was unintentional.

One thing they did'nt mentioned, and I'm thinking this
could be used for, is stealth technology.


Comments, Opinions?

I wonder if this process would also lead to reinforcing the metal by allowing buckyballs and nanotubes to form directly inside of it's molecular lattice creating a super tuff and unique metal alloy?