A new spectrally selective solar absorber coating of TiC-WC/Al2O3 tandem layer is designed and prepared on stainless steel (SS) substrate by magnetron sputtering. The coating consists of an absorptance layer (TiC-WC) and an antireflectance layer (Al2O3) from substrate to top. The new SS/TiC-WC/Al2O3 coating exhibits excellent selective absorbing properties with a high solar absorptance of 0.92 and a low thermal emittance of 0.11. The SS/TiC-WC/Al2O3 coating presents a purple color, which is further investigated by chromaticity study. The thermal stability of the coating is evaluated and characterized by SEM, XRD, UV vis N1R spectrophotometer, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, and Raman spectroscopy. Experimental results indicate that the coating is highly stable in vacuum at 500 degrees C for 100 h with a good solar selectivity of 0.92/0.11.