Love wave is one type of the surface acoustic waves (SAWs). It is guided acoustic mode propagating in ta thin layer deposited on a substrate. Because of its advantages of high mass sensitivity, low noise level and being fit for operating in liquids, Love wave acoustic sensors have become one of the hot spots in the research of biosensor nowadays. In this paper the Love wave devices with the substrate of ST-cut quartz and the guiding layers of PMMA and fused quartz were fabricated successfully. By measuring the transfer function S21 and the insertion loss of the devices, the characteristics of the Rayleigh wave device and the Love wave devices with different guiding layers in gas phase and liquid phase were compared. It was validated that the Love wave sensor is suitable for testing in liquids but the Rayleigh wave sensor is not. What's more, SiO2 is the more proper material for the guiding layer of the Love wave device.© (2001) COPYRIGHT SPIE--The International Society for Optical Engineering. Downloading of the abstract is permitted for personal use only.