To shorten the response time till the start of discharging in a surge absorber in which a gap is formed between resistor layers.

Two resistor layers 12a and 12b are formed on the surface of the base 11 of a flat plate chip while a gap 13 is reserved in between. One of the resistor layers 12a is formed from a high resistance layer (a) while the other resistor layer 12b is set in low resistance in which a low resistance layer (b) is laminated on the high resistance layer (a). Because of low resistance of layer 12b, the time constant determined by this resistance R2 and the capacitance C of the gap 13 becomes short, and the gap charging time is shortened. This allows shortening of the response time till when discharge is started between the main electrodes. If the resistor layers 12a, 12b are covered with an electron emitting material layer 21, the response time can be shortened still more.