The Blackest Black Metal (None More Black)

In a move that would please Spinal Tap and Dethklok, a joint team from Boston College and Duke University have nanoengineered a material that absorbs all the light that strikes it - the ultimate in black metal.

The team designed and engineered a metamaterial that uses tiny geometric surface features to successfully capture the electric and magnetic properties of a microwave to the point of total absorption.

Three things can happen to light when it hits a material: It can be reflected, as in a mirror. It can be transmitted, as with window glass. Or it can be absorbed and turned into heat. This metamaterial was engineered to ensure that all light is neither reflected nor transmitted, but is turned completely into heat and absorbed. The design is set to specific frequency that can absorb all of the photons that fall onto its surface.

This metamaterial is the first to demonstrate perfect absorption, and unlike conventional absorbers it is constructed solely out of metallic elements, which gives the material greater flexibility for applications.