A scanning laser acoustic microscope (SLAM) is described. The SLAM achieves a resolution of about 10 &mgr;m and is capable of imaging subsurface features at depths up to several millimeters, using appropriate reconstruction algorithms. The various components of the apparatus, both acousto‐optical and electronic, are described. A major feature of the SLAM is a digital data‐acquisition system capable of storing and processing the complex acoustic field in images with 256×256‐pixel resolution. An array processor enables most floating‐point operations to be completed in a few seconds. Examples of acoustic images obtained from a test sample are presented.