Absorption of a 633‐nm photon in a cylindrical nickel wire with diameter 13 &mgr;m was measured by a photoacoustic method as a function of angle of photon incidence &thgr;. A good photoacoustic signal was obtained with a 6‐mW He‐Ne laser as a light source without employing focusing optics. The absorption measured forp‐polarized photons was found to be in good agreement with geometrical optics calculation. Fors‐polarized light, however, significant excess absorption was found for &thgr;>35°.