The 200 nm-thickness Ni film was imposed as the diffusion barrier layer between the Au film and the alloy substrate to improve the low-emissivity durability of the Au film at high temperature. The results show that the Au/Ni multilayer films still kept low emissivity after working at 600 degrees C for 200 h. It was concluded that the Ni interlayer effectively retarded the diffusion between gold film and the metal alloy below 600 degrees C. (C) 2010 Elsevier B. V. All rights reserved.