We have determined for the first time the device-relevant optical constants of 500 nm and 800 nm-thick Cu2ZnSnS4 absorbers, grown on bare and Mo-coated soda-lime glass (SLG), using spectroscopic ellipsometry (SE). The composition, structure, phase purity and morphology were characterized by X-ray fluorescence, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy depth profiling, X-ray diffraction, Raman spectroscopy, scanning-electron microscopy and atomic force microscopy. For the SE analysis, carefully determined sample characteristics were utilized to build a multilayer stack optical model, in order to derive the dielectric functions and refractive indices. The SE-derived absorption coefficients from CZTS/SLG samples were compared with those derived from complementary spectrophotometry measurements and found to be in good agreement. The bandgap determined from Tauc plots was E-g=1.57 +/- 0.02 eV. The absorption coefficients just above the bandgap were found to be a few 10(4) cm(-1) and to exceed 10(5) cm(-1) at energies above similar to 2.5 eV, which is much higher than previously found. The sub-bandgap k-value was found to be k similar to 0.05 or less, suggesting that a moderate band tail is present. Separate device characterization performed on identical samples allowed us to assign device efficiencies of, respectively, 2.8% and 5.3% to the 500 nm and 800 nm-thick samples featured in this study. (C) 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.