The field effect was measured on that part of a semiconductor specimen which is covered by a reverse biased p‐n junction on the back side. The purpose of the p‐n junction is to produce a stationary non‐equilibrium state, which may be destroyed by a steady state illumination of suitable intensity, i.e. the equilibrium is reproduced. By means of field effect investigations in equilibrium and stationary non‐equilibrium the ratio of capture cross sections for electrons and holes has been measured for all terms and not only for such states, which take part in the surface recombination.