US Patent 11777042 Plasmonic field-enhanced photodetector and image sensor

A photodetector includes a metal layer that shields incident light and generates surface plasmon polaritons (SPPs), a light absorbing layer that absorbs the generated SPPs and allows charges excited by the absorbed SPPs and a localized electric field effect to tunnel, a dielectric formed at nanoholes in which at least a part of the metal layer is opened, and a semiconductor layer that induces the photocurrent based on an electric field effect of tunneled electrons. The SPPs form localized surface plasmons (LSPs) at an interface where the metal layer meets the dielectric.