We have used backscattering spectrometry and N-15(H-1, α, γ)C-12 nuclear reaction analysis techniques to study in detail the variation in the composition of silicon oxynitride films with deposition parameters. The films were deposited using 2.45 GHz electron cyclotron resonance plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD) technique from mixtures of precursors argon, nitrous oxide, and silane at deposition temperature 90 ° C. The deposition pressure and nitrous oxide-to-silane gas flow rates ratio have been found to have a pronounced influence on the composition of the films. When the deposition pressure was varied for a given nitrous oxide-to-silane gas flow ratio, the amount of silicon and nitrogen increased with the deposition pressure, while the amount of oxygen decreased. For a given deposition pressure, the amount of incorporated nitrogen and hydrogen decreased while that of oxygen increased with increasing nitrous oxide-to-silane gas flow rates ratio. For nitrous oxide-to-silane gas flow ratio of 5, we obtained films which contained neither chemically bonded nor nonbonded nitrogen atoms as revealed by the results of infrared spectroscopy, backscattering spectrometry, and nuclear reaction analysis. Our results demonstrate the nitrogen-free nearly stoichiometric silicon dioxide films can be prepared from a mixture of precursors argon, nitrous oxide, and silane at low substrate temperature using high-density PECVD technique. This avoids the use of a hazardous and an often forbidden pair of silane and oxygen gases in a plasma reactor. © 2005 American Vacuum Society.