The invention relates to a method of catastrophic transfer of a thin film including implanting in a source substrate a first species of ions or gas at a given depth and a second species of ions or gas, the first species being adapted to generate defects and the second species being adapted to occupy those defects. The process further includes applying a stiffener in intimate contact with the source substrate, applying a heat treatment to that source substrate, at a given temperature for a given time, so as to create, substantially at the given depth, a buried weakened zone, without initiating the thermal splitting of a thin film, and applying a localized amount of energy, for example mechanical stresses, to that source substrate so as to provoke the catastrophic splitting of a thin film, the thin film having a substantially planar face opposite to the face surface of the source substrate.