A method for forming a wet-etchable, sacrificial lift-off layer or layers compatible with high temperature processing, a sacrificial layer, defined as consisting of a single film of one material or multiple films of multiple materials, that can tolerate high temperatures, is deposited on a substrate, called the original substrate, by sputtering or another suitable technique (e.g. evaporation, pulsed laser deposition, wet chemistry, etc.). Intermediate steps result in a lift-off layer attached to the lift-off substrate, that allow for separating the product from the original substrate.