Non‐contact, non‐intrusive photo‐thermal radiometry (PTR) was used for monitoring the ion implantation of (p‐type) industrial‐grade silicon wafers. The silicon wafers were implanted with Boron in the dose range of 1×1011‐to‐1×1016ions/cm2at different implantation energies (10 keV‐to‐180 keV). The results indicated excellent sensitivity to the implantation doses and energies. This laser‐based photothermal technique monitors harmonically photoexcited and recombining carriers and shows great potential advantages over existing methodologies for characterization of multiple semiconductor processes such as ion implantation and other device fabrication steps in the Si wafer processing industry. © 2003 American Institute of Physics