The present disclosure provides a method and structure for producing large area gallium and nitrogen engineered substrate members configured for the epitaxial growth of layer structures suitable for the fabrication of high performance semiconductor devices. In a specific embodiment the engineered substrates are used to manufacture gallium and nitrogen containing devices based on an epitaxial transfer process wherein as-grown epitaxial layers are transferred from the engineered substrate to a carrier wafer for processing. In a preferred embodiment, the gallium and nitrogen containing devices are laser diode devices operating in the 390 nm to 425 nm range, the 425 nm to 485 nm range, the 485 nm to 550 nm range, or greater than 550 nm.