Hydrogenated amorphous silicon nitride (a-SiN:H) films were deposited by hot wire chemical vapour deposition (HWCVD) using SiH 4 and NH 3 as precursor gases. Fourier transmission infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), Raman spectroscopy, and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) techniques were used to study the chemical and electronic environments of silicon and nitrogen atoms. The peak position of N (1s) shifts from 396.7eV to 401.7eV and FWHM increases from 1.32eV to 1.51eV as nitrogen content in a-SiN:H films increases from 39at.% to 75at.%. During the present investigation, it was observed that silicon network shifted to higher energy and, both the short-range order (SRO) and intermediate-range order (IRO) were found deteriorate due to incorporation of nitrogen in the silicon network.