The thermal decomposition of disilane in a hydrogen or helium flow has been used for the deposition of hydrogenated amorphous silicon (a-Si:H) films on the surface of several substrates at 450°-500°C. The concentration of disilane in the reaction mixture has been found to affect strongly the deposition rate and the photoconductivity of a-Si:H films. The AMI conductivity of a-Si:H films increases with increasing disilane concentration and approaches lO−5(ohm-cm)−l at disilane concentrations higher than about 4%, and the conductivity ratio is about lO5. The density of gap states in CVD a-Si:H films have been determined by the photothermal deflection spectroscopy, capacitancetemperature, capacitance-frequency, and space-charged-limited current measurements with similar results.