Silane (SiH4) plasmas are widely used for the deposition of hydrogenated amorphous silicon (a-Si:H) films. Nevertheless, the chemical processes governing film deposition are still incompletely understood. Moreover, there is still no general method available to determine the absolute concentration of the silyl radical (SiH3), which is the accepted chemical precursor of a-Si:H films. In this study, a 10% silane in helium RF plasma was spectroscopically investigated between 2085 and 2175 cm(-1) using an external cavity quantum cascade laser (EC-QCL) based spectrometer. This led to the identification of 4 distinct species from their absorption features: SiH4, disilane (Si2H6), SiH3, and an unassigned short-lived species. Furthermore, 17 absorption features of SiH3 were identified and unambiguously assigned. Fast spectral scanning of selected absorption features belonging to the four species in a 10 Hz pulsed RF plasma enabled the measurement and interpretation of their temporal behavior in terms of plausible chemical reactions involving silicon containing species. By quantitatively measuring the decay of the SiH3 a <- a P-p(4) (5) transition at 2151.3207 cm(-1) after the discharge was stopped, its line strength (5) was determined to be (7.5 +/- 5.5) x 10(-20) cm(2) cm(-1) mol(-1).