A two-dimensional (2D) periodic array having air/semiconductor interfaces can be applied to photonic crystals (PCs), which are expected to control spontaneous emission and optical transports in the next-generation devices. In this paper, we report on the selective area metal-organic vapor phase epitaxial (SA-MOVPE) growth of a AlxGa1-xAs 2D periodic array on a GaAs (I I 1)B substrate for application to 2DPCs having GaAs/AlGaAs heterostructures. AlxGa1-xAs (x = 0, 0.25 and 0.50) growth was carried out on triangular lattice array of hexagonal GaAs openings and hexagonal SiNx masks. A uniform Al0.50Ga0.50As X hexagonal pillar array and a GaAs hexagonal air-hole array with a 1 mum-period were successfully obtained. The important growth parameter for uniform 2DPC structure formation by SA-MOVPE was clarified. Furthermore, we describe the successful demonstration of a 400 nm-period pillar array and an air-hole array, which corresponds to the optical communication wavelength lambda = 1.3-1.55 mum. The results indicate that SA-MOVPE method is very promising for the formation of uniform semiconductor 2DPCs without the occurrence of process-induced damages. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.