TiAlC/TiAlCN/TiAlSiCN/TiAlSiCO/TiAlSiO tandem absorber was deposited on stainless steel substrate by using four cathode reactive direct current unbalanced magnetron sputtering system. The reactive gas flow rates (C2H2, N-2 and O-2) and thicknesses of each individual layers were varied to obtain the selective properties of the tandem absorber. The detailed effects of reactive gas flow rates and thicknesses of the individual layers on the optical properties were studied by using UV-vis-NIR spectrophotometer. Guiding factor in optimizing various process parameters was to achieve low reflectance in the solar spectrum region and high reflectance in the infrared region. The change in growth rate of the tandem absorber with reactive gas flow rate was studied using the thickness data, target voltage and target current. These results indicate a decrease in the growth rate of each individual layer of the tandem absorber with an increase in the flow rates of the reactive gases. The changes in bonding structure and chemical composition with reactive gas flow rates were studied by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. The optimized tandem absorber deposited on stainless steel substrate shows absorptance of 0.960 and emittance of 0.15. The thicknesses of the optimized individual layers were similar to 62, 18, 20, 16, 27 nm, respectively. (C) 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.