Multifunctional plasmonic strategies for 2D material photodetectors: Chiral fields, photothermal effects, and hot carriers

Chirality, heat, and hot carriers provide complementary routes to overcome the intrinsic limits of atomically thin photodetectors. This Review surveys how plasmonic nanostructures integrated with graphene, transition-metal dichalcogenides, black phosphorus, and tellurium enable broadband and sub-bandgap photodetection. We discuss three key strategies: chiral plasmonics for circular-polarization and valley-resolved response, thermoplasmonics where nanoscale heating drives photothermoelectric or bolometric signals into the infrared, and hot-carrier generation and injection that create sub-bandgap photocurrent. Building on this framework, we highlight device-level functionalities including IR/THz detectors, polarization- and chirality-resolved imagers, and self-powered or integrated vision sensors.