Single-Band Raman Shift Detection for Spectroscopy-Less Optical Biosensors

The application of Raman scattering in biosensing diverges significantly from its previous usage in qualitative analysis, eliminating the necessity for spectroscopy in certain cases. Here, we push the frontiers of optical biosensing by integrating a custom-designed ultralow noise complementary metal-oxide semiconductor (CMOS) image sensor in a custom-designed scattering measurement optical system and introduce imaging-less and spectroscopy-less Raman shift detection. We empirically validate this pioneering biosensing metrology by analyzing skin carotenoids and monitoring urea levels in human sweat and urine. Our proposed biosensors provide the robustness of spectrometric approaches while substantially substituting instrumentation complexity, opening vast avenues for downsizing and seamless miniaturization of Raman systems.