Abstract: In order to explore new high sensitivity schemes of photoelectric pickup, based on the optical tunneling effect, the change of sound pressure was translated into the change of the optical tunneling distance between the total reflection surface and pendulum optical surface of the total reflection prism. The reflection (transmission) loss of the beam at the whole opposite side of the prism was changed. The sound signal was recorded by measuring the power change of the reflected or transmitted light. To demonstrate this scheme, a set of simple experimental system was built with a semiconductor laser and a rectangular-prism, using triangular wave signal to drive the pendulous reed in the experimental apparatus. The results show that the power of the reflected light changes with the change of triangular wave signal. The variation of the power is up to 5.6%. The change of tunneling distance caused by sound signal can also affect the power of the transmitted light. The feasibility of the scheme is verified.