Femtosecond Lasers Used To Color Metals

Maximum Prophet writes "An optics professor and a postgrad have developed a way to use ultra-short pulses of laser light to etch nano features into the surface of metals so that they can absorb or reflect specific wavelengths of light. This is very similar to the way that butterflies get the color in their wings."

Hmm good bye automotive paint??

[moogied]

Perhaps the end to automotive paint?? Just throw clear coat over the chagned metal...

A novel way to mark items for identification.

[TheLazySci-FiAuthor]

I wonder if this will work outside the range of visible light: up into ultraviolet or down to infrared wavelengths.

It might be a novel way to unobtrusively mark equipment or vehicles with permanent serial numbers or some kind of identification method for recognition by, say, machine vision, but which would not be visible to the unaided eye.

For robots to begin work in our everyday world, I feel that at first they are going to need some special markers around the house and office to help them recognize important objects more easily - this could be a very efficient and elegant way to accomplish just that.

Re:Hmm good bye automotive paint??

[Anonymous Coward]

Except most of the painted parts of my car won't rust because they aren't made of metal, while the parts that are metal are generally not painted.

Re:Butterflies with lasers

[CubicleView]

Offtopic I know, but I just googled The Gloom Wing Moth because I've no idea what you're on about and your post was the only hit I got. Google seems to have Slashdot in pratically real time these days.