Scanning Electrochemical Photometric Sensors for Label-Free Single-Cell Imaging and Quantitative Absorption Analysis

A new photoelectrochemical imaging method termed scanning electrochemical photometric sensor (SEPS) is proposed in this work. It was derived from light-addressable potentiometric sensor (LAPS) and scanning photoinduced impedance microscopy (SPIM) using a front-side laser illumination at a field-effect structure. When the laser beam scans across the sensor substrate, local photocurrent changes at inversion due to the light absorption of analytes can be recorded. It will be shown that SEPS could be used for label-free living cell imaging with micro-resolution as well as real-time quantitative absorption analysis, which would broaden the applications of traditional LAPS/SPIM from potentiometric/impedance measurements to local optical analysis.