GaAs MOS capacitors with ZrTiON high- ${k}$ gate dielectric and ZrLaON or ZrON as interfacial passivation layer (IPL) are fabricated, and their electrical properties are investigated. As compared with a control sample without IPL, improved interfacial quality and electrical properties are obtained for both samples, with the ZrTiON/ZrLaON/GaAs device, exhibiting the lowest interface-state density ( $1.1 \times 10^{12}$ cm $^{-2}$ eV $^{-1})$ , smallest gate leakage current density ( $1.62 \times 10^{-5}$ A cm $^{-2}$ at $V_{g} =V_{{\text {fb}}} + 1$ V), and largest equivalent dielectric constant (25.1). All of these should be attributed to the fact that incorporating La into the ZrON IPL can: first, passivate its defects and, second, enhance the blocking role of the IPL against the Ti/O in-diffusion to the GaAs substrate and the Ga/As out-diffusion to the high- ${k}$ , thus resulting in an obvious reduction of relevant defects in the gate stack and also suppressing the formation of unstable Ga/As oxides and As–As dimer at the GaAs surface to obtain a much improved dielectric/GaAs interface.