Abstract A new laser induced ultrasonic transducer (LIU-T) based on photoacoustic effect was presented. Compared with traditional piezoelectric transducers, Liu-T reduced electromagnetic interference and improved the sound pressure signal. Firstly, Liu-T was made and its sound field characteristics were characterized. The experimental results have shown that the sound pressure of this transducer can reach 3.9MPa and the frequency range was 2.5MHz-7.9MHz. Then an experimental platform for magneto-acoustic-electrical tomography(MAET) based on Liu-T was designed and built. Furthermore, B-scan images of abnormal copper plates were obtained by B-scan, which further indicated that LIU-T would play an important role in the field of NDT and biomedical imaging.