An electrostatic chuck including a dielectric layer made of aluminum nitride, an inner electrode buried in the dielectric layer, and a surface layer covering a surface of the dielectric layer. The surface layer is made of a material harder than the aluminum nitride constituting the dielectric layer and having a thickness of not less than 200 nm, and the surface of the dielectric layer has a center-line average surface roughness of not more than 25 nm. The electrostatic chuck is adapted to adsorb a wafer onto the dielectric layer through the surface layer.