In a group III nitride-type field effect transistor, the present invention reduces a leak current component by conduction of residual carriers in a buffer layer, and achieves improvement in a break-down voltage, and enhances a carrier confinement effect (carrier confinement) of a channel to improve pinch-off characteristics (to suppress a short channel effect). For example, when applying the present invention to a GaN-type field effect transistor, besides GaN of a channel layer, a composition-modulated (composition-gradient) AlGaN layer in which aluminum composition reduces toward a top gradually or stepwise is used as a buffer layer (hetero buffer). To gate length Lg of a FET to be prepared, a sum a of layer thicknesses of an electron supply layer and a channel layer is selected so as to fulfill Lg/a≧5, and in such a case, the layer thickness of the channel layer is selected in a range of not exceeding 5 times (about 500 Å) as long as a de Broglie wavelength of two-dimensional electron gas accumulated in the channel layer in room temperature.