The conventional photoacoustic piezoelectric (PAPE) model did not take into account the influence of the piezoelectric transducer (PZT) on the vibrations of the sample, and this approximation brought certain error. In this article, a simple method has been proposed to investigate the vibrations of the sample-PZT combination, and the theory of the PAPE technique has been modified. By introducing an equivalent thickness parameter, the two-layered model has been simplified and an analytical expression for the phase of the PAPE output signal has been obtained. The experimental system has been set up, and the thermal diffusivities of several metal samples have been measured. The experimental results show that the modified model has a higher accuracy than the conventional model.