This work presents a study of the thermal lens technique to quantify the thermo-optical coefficients ds/dT (optical path change with temperature), thermal diffusivity and conductivity of tellurite glasses doped with Yb3+. The glasses present binary, ternary and quaternary compositions. Yb3+ ions allow the determination of the quantum efficiency, radiative and experimental lifetime of the 2F5/2 → 2F7/2 Yb3+ transition, as well as the fraction of energy converted into heat. It is pointed out that ds/dT is strongly dependent on the glass composition. It is shown that the quaternary composition presents the highest K, D and low ds/dT suggesting that it could be used to develop high temperature photonic devices.