To realize the temperature-stable threshold-current and lasing-wavelength 1.3 1.5 mum laser diodes, TlInGaAsN/ AlGaAs heterostructures were proposed. As a first step, TlInGaAs was successfully grown, for the first time, on GaAs substrate by molecular beam epitaxy. The incorporation of TI was confirmed with reflection high-energy electron diffraction intensity oscillation measurement. Photoluminescence (PL) measurements were conducted on the TlInGaAs/GaAs and InGaAs/GaAs heterostructure samples and the red shift of the PL peak energy was observed for the TlInGaAs/GaAs samples, as expected. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.