Surface plasmon enhanced photodetectors based on internal photoemission

Abstract

Surface plasmon photodetectors are of broad interest. They are promising for several applications including telecommunications, photovoltaic solar cells, photocatalysis, color-sensitive detection, and sensing, as they can provide highly enhanced fields and strong confinement (to subwavelength scales). Such photodetectors typically combine a nanometallic structure that supports surface plasmons with a photodetection structure based on internal photoemission or electron–hole pair creation. Photodetector architectures are highly varied, including waveguides, gratings, nanoparticles, nanoislands, or nanoantennas. We review the operating principles behind surface plasmon photodetectors based on the internal photoelectric effect, and we survey and compare the most recent and leading edge concepts reported in the literature.