There is a method for making a high-performance opto-electronic device on an amorphous substrate. The method includes growing on a single-crystal substrate, a single-crystal, oxide film; applying a first chemical processing to the single-crystal, oxide film to obtain a first transferrable, single-crystal, chalcogenide film; transferring the transferrable, single crystal, chalcogenide film from the single-crystal substrate to an amorphous substrate or polycrystalline metal substrate; applying a second chemical processing to the transferrable, single-crystal, chalcogenide film to obtain a single-crystal, non-oxide film, wherein the single-crystal, non-oxide film is different from the transferrable, single-crystal, chalcogenide film; and growing a wide-bandgap semiconductor film using the single-crystal, non-oxide film as a seeding layer to obtain the opto-electronic device on the amorphous glass or polycrystalline metal substrate. The first chemical processing is different from the second chemical processing.