A new solar selective coating was optimization designed in our paper. Ti0.5Al0.5N and Ti0.25Al0.75N coatings were chosen as absorber layers and AlN coating was chosen as anti-reflection layer. The phase structure and optical constants of these coatings were studied by X-ray diffraction and spectroscopic ellipsometry, respectively. The Ti0.5Al0.5N coating has a cubic NaCl-type structure and exhibits metallic character. However, the Ti0.25Al0.75N coating consists of cubic NaCl-type structure and hexagonal AlN structure and exhibits semiconducting property. AlN coating is expected as a dielectric layer. The solar selective coating was optimized using a computer program named TFCalc and verified by experimental results. The absorptance and low emittance of the optimized solar selective coating were 0.945 and 0.04 (82 degrees C), respectively. (C) 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.