Thermal Lens Spectrometry: Still a Technique on the Horizon?

In this article, the historical development of thermal lens spectrometry (TLS) is briefly reviewed as an introduction. In continuation, the emphasis is on the recent progresses of TLS for measurements in ensembled sample cells and in microfluidic flow injection systems. Novel theories, instrumentation and their applications for high sample throughput for environmental, chemical and biomedical analysis, as well as thermal characterization and imaging, particularly in microspace, are presented. Discussion is given on the limitations of present TLS systems that open new horizons for future progress of this technique, which has already found place among routine techniques for chemical analysis. In the final section, proposals for the future development of TLS towards advanced applications in new research fields are presented.