A complete theoretical treatment of photothermal deflection spectroscopy has been performed for the measurement of thermal conductivities in an anisotropic medium. An analytical solution of three-dimensional heat conduction was obtained by using 2D Fourier Transforms for an anisotropic material irradiated by a laser beam. Thermal conductivity was determined by using the phase angle of deflection at relative positions between the heating and probe beams. Excellent agreement between theoretical and experimental photothermal deflections was obtained. Also, the thermal conductivity in an arbitrary measurement direction for anisotropic materials (Pyrolytic graphite) was measured. (C) 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.