Patent Number: 
Section: claims

1. A method of forming a solar absorptive coating on a surface, the method comprising:i. applying a ceramic material to the surface to form a coated surface, wherein the ceramic material comprises chromium oxide or a lanthanum-based perovskite; andii. treating the coated surface with a pulsed laser source, wherein the pulsed laser source is selected from the group consisting of a nanosecond laser and femtosecond laser, thereby forming the solar absorptive coating on the surface. 2. The method of claim 1, further comprising, before step ii, curing the ceramic material on the coated surface. 3. The method of claim 1, further comprising, after step ii, re-treating the solar absorptive coating with a pulsed laser source. 4. The method of claim 1, wherein the solar absorptive coating has a solar absorptance of greater than about 0.94 and/or is a high-temperature solar selective coating. 5. The method of claim 1, wherein the solar absorptive coating comprises a plurality of microstructures and a plurality of nanostructures. 6. The method of claim 5, wherein the microstructure comprises a trench having a width of from about 5 μm to about 30 μm and/or a spacing between trenches of from about 20 μm to about 70 μm. 7. The method of claim 1, wherein the pulsed laser source has a pulse width from about 100 fs to about 1000 ns. 8. The method of claim 7, wherein the pulse width is from about 1 ns to about 500 ns. 9. The method of claim 1, wherein the pulsed laser source has a wavelength from about 750 nm to about 1200 nm. 10. The method of claim 1, wherein the pulsed laser source has a pulse energy of more than about 1 mJ. 11. The method of claim 1, wherein the pulsed laser source has an average power of more than about 20 watts. 12. The method of claim 1, wherein the pulsed laser source has a repetition rate of between about 1 kHz to about 500 kHz. 13. The method of claim 1, wherein the pulsed energy source is a nanosecond laser. 14. The method of claim 13, wherein the nanosecond laser has a pulse duration of between about 1 ns to about 400 ns, a wavelength of about 1064 nm, an average power of more than about 20 watts, and/or a repetition rate of about 15 kHz to about 300 kHz. 15. The method of claim 1, wherein the pulsed energy source is a femtosecond laser. 16. The method of claim 15, wherein the femtosecond laser has a pulse energy of more than about 1 mJ, a repetition rate of between about 1 kHz to about 100 kHz, and/or a wavelength of about 800 nm. 17. The method of claim 1, wherein the surface is a substrate for absorption of solar energy selected from the group consisting of a concentrating solar power receiver, a solar tower, a trough, a Stirling engine, a heat absorber, and a solar collector, or a portion thereof. 18. A solar absorptive coating formed by the method of claim 1.