The effect of dopants on the crystal growth and the microstructure of poly-crystalline silicon (poly-Si) thin film grown by metal induced lateral crystallization (MILC) method was intensively investigated. PH3 and B2H6 were used as source gases in ion mass doping (IMD) process to make n-type and p-type semiconductor respectively. It was revealed that the microstructure of MILC region varies significantly as the doping type of the samples varied from intrinsic to n-type and p-type, which was investigated by field emission (FE)-SEM. The microstructure of MILC region of the intrinsic was bi-directional needle network structure whose crystal structure has a (I 10) preferred orientation. For p-type doped sample, the microstructure of MILC region was revealed to become unidirectional parallel growth structure more and more as MILC growth proceed, which was led by unidirectional division of needlelike grain at the front of MILC region. And for n-type doped sample, the microstructure was random-directional needlelike growth structure. These phenomena can be explained by an original model of Ni ion and Ni vacancy hopping in the NiSi2 phase and its interface at the front of MILC region. (c) 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.