Amorphous Si films deposited by the low pressure chemical vapor deposition from disilane, and subsequently subjected to a combined furnace annealing at 600 °C/12 h and a sequential excimer laser annealing, results to polycrystalline silicon films with very large grains, low in‐grain defect density, and smooth‐free surface. Large but heavily defected grains are produced by the furnace annealing, the in‐grain defects are mainly microtwins, which are eliminated by a combined liquid–solid state process induced by the laser annealing. The two‐step annealing provides a very high quality polycrystalline material suitable for thin‐film transistor application. ©1995 American Institute of Physics.