Abstract: In order to investigate interaction between Rayleigh waves and the notches on the surface of a cylinder, an experiment setup was designed.By changing the relative position between generation source and the notch, Rayleigh waves were detected by a laser interferometer with applying a pulse laser to generate the signal.Experimental results demonstrated that different Rayleigh waves were obtained at different positions, that peak-to-peak value of reflective Rayleigh waves increased with the decrease of laser source-notch distance, and that the waves'polarity transformed.Therefore, detecting the maximum of peakpeak value can be utilized to judge the position of the notch by rotating the sample while keeping the position of generation source unchanged; the polarity can also be used in further judgments.