Abstract: A method and apparatus for the enhanced detection of a component in the base material of a sample, particularly of a semiconducting base material having traces of at least one dopant therein to be detected, involves exposing a restricted region of the sample to an intense source of photons to heat the region of the sample sufficiently to cause it to emit infrared radiation therefrom by subjecting the region to electromagnetic radiation, particularly in the form of a laser beam, having a wavelength selected so as to be absorbed by the component to an appreciably larger extent than by the base material, and detecting, by an infrared detector, the infrared radiation emitted by the respective region of the sample as a result of the heating of the component therein produced by the exposure to the electromagnetic radiation.