from Technology Review -
Pink Silicon Is the New Black
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A marked improvement (with significant cost reduction) in the development of sensors for imaging purpose:

"Black silicon can absorb light over a wider spectrum than can normal silicon--from low-frequency visible light through near- and short-wave-infrared wavelengths that would normally pass right through regular silicon. Another property, called photoconductive gain, gives black silicon much greater sensitivity to light. These properties have identified black silicon as a way to make smaller, cheaper, and lighter silicon-based light detectors and to replace more expensive materials used in infrared detectors found in fiber-optic links, security systems, and elsewhere."

The "elsewhere" allured to in the last sentence would include applications in the technical examination of paintings - akin to peeling back the layers of paint in an attempt to better understand the painting, as well as the working process of the artist.

See separate article for a sense of what infra-red imaging can do in terms of technical examination of paintings.
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