There is provided a surface acoustic wave atomizer which can guide a liquid to an atomizing area on a substrate surface stably at a constant quantity per unit time and can limit a distribution of the liquid on the substrate surface, so that a stable and efficient atomization and a deterioration control of an interdigital transducer and so on can be achieved with a simple configuration. The surface acoustic wave atomizer (1) includes a piezoelectric substrate (3) which has a pattern electrode (2) on a surface (S) and a liquid supply member (4) for supplying a liquid (M) to the surface (S) and atomizes the liquid (M) supplied to the surface (S) by surface acoustic wave (W), and between the liquid supply member (4) and the surface (S) of the piezoelectric substrate (3), a small gap (11) is provided in an area (A1) which is designed to hold and guide the liquid (M) and a large gap (12) is provided in an area (A2) which is not designed to supply the liquid (M), so that the liquid (M) is supplied to an atomizing area (30) in an area away from the pattern electrode (2) in the surface (S) of the piezoelectric substrate (3) by using a difference in surface tension due to sizes of the gaps. The liquid (M) can be supplied stably by the small gap (11) and a distribution of the liquid (M) can be limited by the large gap (12).
