The application of silicon quantum dot (Si QD) based material is regarded as a promising approach for the realization of high efficiency solar cells. When silicon nanocrystals are made very small (within the vicinity of the exciton Bohr radius of bulk Si), they behave as quantum dots due to the three-dimensional quantum confinement, which could cause the material's effective optical band gap to increase. The optical band gap can be deduced from the absorption coefficient. In this paper, we analyze optical absorption and emission processes in Si QD and attempt to simulate the band-edge absorption features based on the photoluminescence spectrum. We also investigate the application of ellipsometry in the study of optical properties of Si QD thin films. Based on WVASE32 modeling tool, a homogeneous mixture model is developed to extract the absorption coefficient of this material. From these results, we extract the effective optical band gap and analyze optical properties of Si QDs materials. (© 2015 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)