Atomic layer epitaxy is a relatively new epitaxial pprocess chracterized by the alternate and separate exposure of a susbstrate surface to the reactants contaning the constituent element of a compound semicoductror. The ideal ALE is expected to provide sevral advantageous as petcts for growing complicated heterostrutures such as relativly easy controls of the layer thinkness down to a monolayer and in forming abrupt heterointerfaces though monolayer self-saturatio of the growth. In addition, since ALE is stongly dependent on the surface reaction, the growth can also be controlled by photo-excitation which provides activation can be energies for each step of the reaction paths. The local growth acceleration by photo-excitation can be exploited for growing several device strures on the same wafer, which provides another important practical advantage. The ALE growth of GaAs has advanced to the point the laser opertion has been achieved from AlGs/GaAs quantun well structures where thee active layers were grown by thermal and Ar-laser assisted ALE. The status of the ALE growth of GaAs and other III-V compounds will be reviewed with respect to the growth saturation behavior and the electrical properties of the grown crystals.