Anomalous crystallization behavior has been found for metal induced crystallization (MIC) of amorphous silicon (a-Si). The Ni density of similar to10(13) atoms/cm(2) was deposited uniformly over whole a-Si layer and then the 2nd Ni layer was selectively deposited onto the a-Si using a shadow mask with Ni density of similar to 10(15) atoms/cm(2). The crystallization started at first in the high Ni density (approx. 10(15) atoms/cm(2)) region as a result of MIC in an electric field and then the a-Si in low Ni density (approx. 10(13) atoms/cm(2)) region was laterally crystallized. However, the lateral crystallization proceeded in radial direction from the high Ni density region, forming disk-like grains, even though a parallel bias-field was applied. Then, the crystallization speed increased with the electric field strength. The lateral crystallization speed showed an exponential relationship with the electric field as r = r(o)e(alphaE) with constant r(o) and alpha of 2.2 X 10(-2) cm/V. The dependence appears to be due to the reduction in the activation of Ni diffusion in an electric field. (C) 2003 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.