Metalorganic vapor phase epitaxial growth of metastable GaAs1-xBix alloy has been performed to investigate growth conditions for obtaining epitaxial layers of the metastable semiconductor alloy. The growth behavior was quite different from that of usual ternary semiconductor alloys such as GaInAs and AlGaAs. Three-dimensional nucleation easily starts in this alloy growth. It was found that the epitaxial GaAs1-xBix layer can be grown at growth temperatures below 400degreesC within a very narrow range of V/III ratios. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.