The annealing of chlorine-doped polycrystalline CdTe films results in the formation of large secondary grains within a smaller primary grain matrix. Growth kinetics is driven by chlorine drag for both types of grains and modeled within Burke's approach. The activation energy for grain boundary motion is 1.65 +/- 0.1 eV, corresponding to the activation energy for chlorine diffusion in CdTe and revealing the occurrence of a diffusion-induced grain boundary migration. The < 1 00 > texture is enhanced by secondary grain growth but subsequently lessened by the thickening of annealing twins in their center. (C) 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.