The thin layer of infrared detection material guarantees the uniformity of the materials and reduces the signal noise in infrared detection. The absorption of infrared detector is limited by the thin layer of infrared detection material attributing to small volume. According to the characteristics of different infrared detection materials, artificial microstructure can effectively improve the performance of infrared detector. The strategies of enhancing the absorption of thin-layer infrared detection materials were introduced. The strategies were based on metal back plate, metal grating and asymmetric Fabry-Perot cavity. They could have an excellent performance in their own adaptive scenarios. Meanwhile, the mechanism of adjusting the absorption peak height and width by artificial microstructure was also elaborated briefly. The application of artificial microstructure in several infrared detectors was demonstrated. Finally, an artificial microstructure HgCdTe infrared detector was designed, which could achieve broadband absorption in 3.5-5.5 μm atmospheric window. The absorption peak reached 91.8% and the relative peak width was 41.8%. In most of frequency in the atmospheric window, the absorption enhancement is higher than 6. The development of artificial microstructure opens up the design idea of traditional infrared devices, and provides theoretical basis and guidance for new infrared devices.