High absorption efficiency is particularly desirable at present for various microtechnological applications including microbolometers, photodectors, coherent thermal emitters, and solar cells. Here we report the design, characterization, and experimental demonstration of an ultrathin, wide-angle, subwavelength high performance metamaterial absorber for optical frequencies. Experimental results show that an absorption peak of 88% is achieved at the wavelength of ∼1.58 μm, though theoretical results give near perfect absorption. © 2010 American Institute of Physics.