GaAs/Ge/GaAs and AlAs/Ge/AlAs heterostructures were grown both on (1 1 3)B and (1 1 3)A GaAs substrates by molecular beam epitaxy. Sublattice reversal in these heterostructures were identified by comparing the anisotropic etching profile of the epitaxy sample with that for reference (1 1 3)B and (1 1 3)A GaAs substrates. Sublattice reversal in GaAs/Ge/GaAs heterostructures was achieved on (1 1 3)B GaAs substrate. On the other hand, sublattice reversal on (1 1 3)A GaAs substrate was obtained by using AlAs/Ge/AlAs heterostructures.