As one of the core devices in the field of aeronautic and astronautics, deep space exploration, environmental monitoring, there is significant scientific research and practical application value for photodetector. In recent years, surface plasmon has become one of the research hotspots in the field of enhanced photodetection, due to the properties of breaking through the optical diffraction limit and realizing nanometer focusing. Hence, surface plasmon is a novel technical method for improving the performance of photodetectors. In this article, the research progress based on the photodetector with enhancement effect was reviewed, the enhancement effect can attribute to the surface plasmon nanostructure. Firstly, various kinds of physical properties of surface plasmon nanostructures were introduced, mainly included localized surface plasmon structure and surface plasmon polaritons structure with propagating nature, as well as the heterostructure that consisted of surface plasmon metal and semiconductor materials. Then, the research progress of photodetector enhanced by surface plasmon nanostructures was introduced focusing on the aspects of performance of photodetector, detection mechanism and fabrication process method. Finally, the photodetector enhanced by surface plasmon nanostructures and the related challenges in the future were both summarized and prospected.