The thermal lens effect has emerged in recent years as a novel ,highly sensitive tool for the study of the very weak molecular absorption of light energy,This paper discusses the theory and technique of the thermal lens measurement.Some opplications of the thermal lens measurement are described.A mode-mismatched dual-beam thermal lens experimental arragement with a modulated probe beam ,designed by the authors.for trace analysis is presented,and its detection limit was found to be 4.1×10^-7 for Cu(Ⅱ) in ethanol and 80 mW excitation power.
