The effects of a cylindrical cavity in a metal surface on the energy coupling of a laser beam with the solid were investigated by using a photothermal deflection technique. The photothermal deflection of a probe beam over the cavity was measured while the bottom of the cavity was heated with a Nd–YAG laser with a wavelength of 1064 nm. Cavities in three different materials and with two different aspect ratios were used for the experiment. Temperature distributions in the solid and the surrounding air were computed numerically and used to calculate photothermal deflections for cavity heating and for plane surface heating. Reflection of the heating laser beam inside the cavity increased the photothermal deflection amplitude significantly with larger increases for materials with larger thermal diffusivity. The computed photothermal deflections agreed more closely with the experimental results when reflection of the heating laser beam inside the cavity was included in the numerical model. The overall energy coupling between a heating laser and a solid is enhanced by a cavity.