Photocapacitance transients due to photoquenching have been measured to characterize midgap electron traps (the ‘‘EL2 family’’) in different GaAs wafers. The spectral distributions of photoquenching rates in liquid encapsulated Czochralski, vapor phase epitaxial, and oxygen‐implanted liquid phase epitaxial GaAs were different to each other and also different from that in horizontal Bridgman‐grown GaAs. From these results it is suggested that the EL2 family has multimetastable states and may consist of arsenic‐atom aggregates.