A thin film transistor has a gate electrode; a gate insulating layer provided so as to cover the gate electrode layer; a pair of impurity semiconductor layers forming source and drain regions which is provided so that at least part of each of them overlaps the gate electrode layer and which are provided with a space therebetween; a microcrystalline semiconductor layer provided over the gate insulating layer in part of a channel length; a semiconductor layer provided over the gate insulating layer so as to cover at least the microcrystalline semiconductor layer; and an amorphous semiconductor layer provided between the semiconductor layer and the pair of impurity semiconductor layers. An impurity element which reduces the coordination number of silicon and generates dangling bonds is made to exist in the semiconductor layer.