A new measurement technigue, acoustoelectric deep-level transient spectroscopy (AE-DLTS) is used to characterize the GaAs epilayer film grown on a semi-insulating GaAs substrate. The electric field. generated by the propagation of a surfaceacoustic wave fsnw)onapiezoelectriccrystai, is used asaprobing tool to studythe transient behaviour ofdeep levels. This field interacts with the freecarriers present in the semiconductor, resulting in an alteration of the carrier density at the surfaceofthesemiconductor and the generation of aocvoltage.The rateatwhich excess charges are induced at the semiconductor surface, or diminished after the passageofthes~wpulse, is related tothe positionand thecrosssectionofthedeep levels at the interface between the epilayer and the substrate. The theoretical analysis ofthefall timeoftheocvoltage ispresented along withexperimental verification. In our experiments the voltage transients were recorded as afunction of incident photon energy and at differenttemperatures, and the thermal and optical cross sections of the EL2 level in GaAs were evaluated from computer fit.