This research presents a novel fluidic lens based on thermal lens effect. Effects of the pump power and the pump beam intensity distribution to the probe beam profile in the dual thermal lens system are investigated experimentally and theoretically. A model, which accounts for heat conduction, natural heat convection and ray tracing in inhomogeneous medium is developed to predict the characteristics of the thermal lens system. Numerical results show the advantage of the uniform pump beam in reducing the spherical aberration compared with the Gaussian pump beam. An experiment with the uniform pump beam is carried out to confirm the numerical prediction. Experimental results show a good agreement with the calculated results. Finally, the pump power is varied to adjust the focal length of the system. (C) 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.