Tertiarybutylphosphine (TBP) and tertiarybutylarsine (TBAs) are widely used as alternative group V precursors for phosphine and arsine, mainly because of their comparatively low toxicity and low decomposition temperature. In this work, the effect of group V precursors on selective area metal-organic vapor phase epitaxy (MOVPE) of InP/GaAs-related materials was studied, in terms of the surface sticking probabilities of group III intermediates. The sticking probabilities were measured by analyzing the thickness profiles of selectively grown films of GaAs and InP in 380-pmwide growth area between SiO2 masks. The sticking probability of the In precursor was about 3.2 times larger in the growth with PH3 than with TBP at 823 K. The sticking probability of the Ga precursor was nearly the same whether the group V source was AsH3 or TBAs. Such differences were manifested in the In/Ga ratio of selectively grown InxGa1-xP. The difference in the sticking probabilities between the precursors of In and Ga mainly determined the In/Ga ratio. Based on a linear combination model using measured values of sticking probabilities, the variation of the composition was predicted to be larger in the growth with phosphine than with TBP. Measurement of the In/Ga composition using electron-probe micro analysis confirmed that prediction. It was proved that the kind of group V precursor is an important factor that governs composition uniformity in selective area MOVPE. (C) 2003 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.