We report the first successful growth of high-quality V-shaped AlGaAs/GaAs quantum wires (QWRs) using tertiarybutylarsine (TBAs) as the arsenic source by flow rate modulated metalorganic vapor-phase epitaxy. We found that the fundamental structural qualities of QWRs grown using TBAs (for example. the growth selectivity, the sharpness of the V-groove bottom. and the uniformity of the QWR surface) are comparable to or better than those of QWRs grown using AsH3. A characteristic defect was observed mainly in the intersecting region of the (111)A side wall and the (001) flat facets: at low growth temperatures. but it would not have an important influence on the size of the grown QWRs for a substrate with a sufficiently long (111)A side wall facet. In a preliminary optical investigation of a 4.5 nm thick QWR, we observed an energy separation as large as 58 meV between the ground and the first excited state and a ground state Stokes shift as small as 3.9 meV at 5 K. Both of these results are much better than the values of the sample grown using AsH3.