Compensated hydrogenated amorphous silicon films were crystallized using a step-by-step laser dehydrogenation and crystallization procedure. The influence of laser crystallization on hydrogen bonding is investigated employing Raman spectroscopy and hydrogen effusion measurements. In P-doped samples a considerable amount of hydrogen is accommodated in the clustered phase, while for B-doped samples most of the H atoms are accommodated in isolated Si-H bonds. In specimens where the boron and phosphorous doping is at equal levels, the hydrogen bonding configuration is close to that found for singly P-doped samples. From hydrogen effusion measurements, the hydrogen density-of-states distribution in fully crystallized poly-Si is derived. For the compensated poly-Si films four peaks arise in the H density-of-states distribution that are located at 2.0, 2.2, 2.5 and 2.8 eV below the hydrogen transport states. The peak observed at 2.8 eV below the hydrogen transport states is not observed in singly B-doped samples. (C) 2005 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.