A method of making polycrystalline silicon (p-Si), including: depositing amorphous silicon to produce an amorphous silicon super-mesa; dehydrogenating the amorphous silicon; patterning the super-mesa to produce a patterned substrate; depositing a capping oxide layer on the amorphous silicon on the patterned substrate; heating the capped, patterned substrate to the crystallization temperature of the a-Si; and flash lamp annealing the patterned substrate with a xenon lamp to produce p-Si having at least one super-mesa, and the super-mesa having supersized grains. Also disclosed are p-Si articles and devices incorporating the articles, and an apparatus for making the p-Si articles.