This paper describes the use of the catalytic hydrogenation technique on laser-crystallized poly-Si used for thin-film transistors in liquid-crystal display panels. A tungsten-mesh filament was used to generate atomic hydrogen. The electronic properties of poly-Si films were characterized by the Hall-effect measurement. Hydrogen atoms and vacancics in poly-Si films were observed by Raman spectroscopy, where vacancies were detected as complexes with hydrogen. It was shown that enough hydrogen was introduced by the catalytic technique to improve electron mobility. Damage effects such as those observed when using the conventional plasma hydrogenation were not observed. It was also shown that catalytic hydrogenation is available to reveal lattice defects in poly-Si films without generating additional defects.