GaAs, InP, GaSb, and InAs were investigated for layer transfer to other III-V substrates using hydrogen ion exfoliation and wafer bonding to develop III-V based wafer bonded templates for subsequent epitaxial growth of device structures. High-resolution X-ray diffraction was proven to be particularly helpful in this investigation enabling nondestructive testing of the initial implantation profile as well as the strain relief (associated with the diffusion of hydrogen and other point defects) after various annealing sequences. The kinetics of exfoliation for many different III-V materials (including GaAs, InP, InAs, and GaSb) showed similar dependence on the processing temperature relative to the material melting temperature (and other materials parameters), i.e., lower melting temperature materials required lower temperature processing to retain the implanted hydrogen for exfoliation. In all of these cases, a multiple annealing sequence was shown to produce the most efficient exfoliation. (c) 2006 The Electrochemical Society.