This work reports temperature measurement of fine wires using the photothermal radiometry (PTR) technique. In this method, a laser is employed to create a small periodic temperature perturbation on the wire and thus a small modulation of the thermal emission signal from the wire. The temperature of the wire is derived from the ratio of the photothermal emission signals at two different wavelengths. Temperature measurement is performed on an electrically heated metallic wire of 127 &mgr;m in diameter. A calibration procedure is developed to account for the emissivity difference at the two signal wavelengths. The measured temperatures by the PTR technique are in good agreement with the thermocouple readings at different laser modulation frequencies. The possibility of extending the technique to optical fibers is discussed based on Mie scattering theory. Calculations suggest that the PTR technique can be used to measure temperature of optical fibers during the fiber drawing process by choosing an appropriate excitation laser and the signal wavelengths. ©1997 American Institute of Physics.