Simple technological process, low cost and high stability are important for large-scale production of the high temperature spectral selective solar absorber coatings. In this study, a simple Mo-HfC/Al₂O₃ coating that only
contains an absorber layer (Mo-HfC) and an antireflection layer (Al₂O₃) deposited onto stainless steel substrate, which exhibits a high spectral selectivity (αs/εT) of 0.92/0.11. The experimental results indicate that the addition of Mo could greatly enhance the spectral selectivity of the coating. Thermal stability test demonstrates that the spectral selectivity of the coating remains unchanged even after annealed it at 600°C for 100 h in vacuum. Obviously, the coating shows a promising prospect in high temperature application. In addition, the optical degradation mechanism is also discussed in this work.