Polycrystalline silicon thin films were produced with a high deposition rate of over 10 Angstrom/s at a low temperature of 300 degrees C using a de are discharge ion plating method, where the plasma density was 10(12) cm(-3) and the source material was solid silicon. The crystalline volume fraction (deduced from a Raman scattering) could be controlled between 0 and 80% by adjusting the process pressure (10 and 70 mTorr, respectively), which was the total pressure of the reactive gas (hydrogen) and discharge gas (argon) in the deposition chamber. Furthermore, increase of the partial pressure of hydrogen also increased the crystalline fraction of the film. These results suggest that highly concentrated active hydrogen plays an important role in the growth of polycrystalline silicon films.