smart cut u00ae method a general description of which is found in the publication silicon on insulator technology materials to vlsi 2nd edition of jean pierre colinge kluwer academic publishers p 50 and 51 those skilled in the art will appreciate that detachment of the seed layer 5 and of the donor substrate 1 may be achieved by an operation such as for example heat treatment application of mechanical stresses chemical etching or a combination of at least two of these operations the seed layer 5 may consist of a material for which the thermal expansion coefficient is equal to 1 u03b5 times that of the receiving support 3 with u03b5 of the order of 0 2 and preferably u03b5 equals 0 1 it will however be observed that thermal expansion may vary with temperature with the deposition technique with the defects present inside the layers and also with the measurement techniques thus when the structure is undergoing heat treatments e g during detachment of the seed layer 5 and the useful layer 6 of the receiving substrate 3 the seed layer 5 and the receiving support 3 will substantially expand in the same way the receiving support 3 will expand slightly less than the seed layer 5 so that the latter may.