Blackest material ever created. Again.

Eduard Driessen, MSc, and Dr Michiel de Dood's new paper in Applied Physics Letters identifies a new contender for the blackest material that ever existed. No word on whether it's any blacker than the last three Spinal-Tap-joke-inspiring none-more-black materials we've covered here since 2003.

Two researchers, Eduard Driessen, MSc, and Dr Michiel de Dood, have demonstrated that at a thickness of 4.5 nanometer niobiumnitride (NbN) is ultra-absorbent. They have recorded a light absorption of almost 100%, while the best light absorption to date was 50%. This research brings the ideal light detector a step closer.

Blackest Black Ever: Ultra-thin Material Absorbs Almost 100% Of Light

(Image: Blue'n'black, a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike photo from szeretlek_ma's Flickr stream)