Although deposition of crystalline silicon films at low temperature below 400 degrees C has been intensively studied using hot wire or plasma, the mechanism has not been clearly understood. As a mechanism of low-temperature deposition of crystalline silicon, we suggest that crystalline silicon nanoparticles are generated in the high-temperature region of hot wire with their subsequent incorporation into a film during hot-wire chemical vapor deposition (HWCVD). Here, the generation of such crystalline silicon nanoparticles in the gas phase was studied during silicon HWCVD. (C) 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.