Came across this interesting article on slashdot.

These guys used a laser to etch the surface of metals and make them reflect specific colors... If they can commercialize it this could mean great things for the automotive industry... Forget red spark plug wires, you could have your engine block, turbo, manifolds, intercooler, and every other metal piece in any color you want.. Plus, imagine paint that would never fade...

 

oh nice find and something i have been thinking about for a few days sparked by a similar idea.

absorb seem to me to be the wrong word and gives what i think is a false impression. surely the material is not actually aborbing light like a sponge. that implies the light is stuck in the material and that the material might have a limit for absorbing light (like a sponge has a limit for absorbing water) and some light of that color should start dripping out at some point.


so what is really happening? i believe the light is actually being reflected in a direction that doesnt allow a person to see it or it is actually passing through in some fashion.

 

light is absorbed, that's how colors work

it gets transformed to heat... it would indeed begin to drip out (in the form of IR radiation) if the material weren't also being cooled by ambient air

 

I'd imagine you'd still need to clearcoat something like this. If it's based on etching the metal, wouldn't a couple seconds with sandpaper rub the finish right off?

Still, very cool idea.

 

see not absorbed at all. you are saying is the visible energy's wave length is changed to that of non visible( to the human eye) heat energy. there is no absorbtion of the light in that scenario.

its a semantic arguement. it struck me the other day. simply that absorb implies you can suck up visible light with a item of clothing for exmple and then release that visible light again later.

 

The difference is semantic, but what gets released is not really "light", so there :P

 

Electromagnetic spectrum in in the form of visible light, electromagnetic spectrum out in the form of IR. Seems like absorption to me. It's just released at a different wavelength. Absorbed just means to take in. doesn't necessarily mean you store the energy.