Thin films of hydrogenated silicon are deposited by hot wire chemical vapour deposition technique, as an alternative of plasma enhanced chemical vapour deposition technique. By varying the hydrogen and silane How rate, we deposited the films ranging from pure amorphous to nanocrystallite-embedded amorphous in nature. In this paper we report extensively Studied structural and optical properties of these films. It is observed that the rms bond angle deviation decreases with increase in hydrogen flow rate, which is an indication of improved order in the films. We discuss this under the light of breaking of weak Si-Si bonds and subsequent formation of strong Si-Si bonds and coverage of the growing surface by atomic hydrogen. (C) 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.