Abstract: Photoacoustic imaging (PAI) is a kind of nondestructive biomedical imaging technology with wide application prospect. It overcomes the optical diffusion limit and provides deeper tissue imaging with high spatial resolution by integrating high selectivity of optical imaging with deep penetrating of ultrasonic imaging. PAI has potential for clinical application. In recently, PAI technology is developed fastly in methodology and medical applications.The principle and development status of PAI are described in this paper. Finally, the advantages of the PAI are summarized, and the application prospects of PAI in biomedical field are discussed.