Optimization of the crystallization of amorphous silicon (a-Si) using a mixture of nanoenergetic materials of iron oxide/aluminum (Fe2O3/Al) was Studied. To achieve high-quality polycrystalline Si (poly-Si) thin films, silicon oxide (SiO2) and silver (Ag) layer were deposited on the a-Si as buffer layers to prevent the metal diffusion in a-Si during thermite reaction and to transport the thermal energy released from nanoenergetic materials, respectively. Raman measurement was used to define the crystallinity of poly-Si. For molar ratio of Al and Fe of 2 with 100-nm-thick-SiO2, Raman measurement showed the 519.59 cm(-1) of peak position and the 5.08 cm(-1) of full width at half maximum with 353 MPa of low tensile stress indicating high quality poly-Si thin film. These results showed that optimized thermite reaction could be used successfully in crystallization of a-Si to high -quality poly-Si thin films. (C) 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.