Metalorganic chemical vapour deposition growth of GaSb self-assembled quantum dots (QDs) on GaAs substrates was optimized with respect to their geometry. The results show that the size and density of the dots can be controlled by growth temperature, growth time and the dilution of the growth precursors. The dot width of 40 run, the height of 4 nm and the density in the order of 10(10)cm(-2) can be achieved. These results are comparable with GaSb/GaAs QDs grown by molecular beam epitaxy. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.