Hi Fazal, effectively this is the "Photo-electric effect", more modern attempts to using the plasmon resonance of metal nano-particles, with hot-electron emission are being researched, but so far the efficiencies are very low.
Essentially most metals are reflective so incident electromagnetic radiation in the visible area of the spectrum is not absorbed. The more reactive alkaline metals do start to absorb towards the UV end of the spectrum (c.f. the photo electric effect), and there is also a resonant absorption phenomenon when you start to make nanoparticles of metals c.f "surface plasmon reosnance").