A recently developed lens-free heterodyne transient grating method was applied for the measurement of ultrafast photoexcited dynamics of several kinds of dye molecules in aqueous solutions. The principle of the lens-free heterodyne transient grating method was clarified in detail, especially for thick samples, such as liquid and semi-transparent solid samples. The ultrafast dynamics of malachite green and methyl orange molecules in aqueous solutions was successfully monitored, and the obtained time constants agreed with those in other reports. (C) 2003 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.