Metalorganic vapor phase epitaxy of GaSb quantum dots (QDs) grown on top of a layer of InAs seed QDs shows a vertically aligned correlation if thin GaAs spacer layers deposited at low temperature are used. Introduction of an annealing step after spacer deposition strongly improves the crystalline quality of the spacer layer. Vertically anticorrelated ordering is found on annealed spacers in addition to aligned ordering. Good optical properties are achieved for stacked QD structures with an InGaAs QD layer on top of seeded GaSb QDs, The photoluminescence of these structures is red shifted by 75 meV with respect to the emission of a single InGaAs QD layer. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.