Nanowire-based semiconductor device and method employing removal of residual carriers

A nanowire-based semiconductor device comprising:

• a nanowire comprising a semiconductor material, the semiconductor material comprising a plurality of dopants that forms a semiconductor junction, the semiconductor junction being axially located within the nanowire;
• and
• a residual carrier sink proximal to the semiconductor junction, the residual carrier sink comprising a region of the nanowire either at or adjacent to a surface of the nanowire, the region having enhanced state density relative to a state density of the semiconductor material of the nanowire outside of the region,
• wherein the residual carrier sink facilitates removal of residual carriers from the semiconductor junction.

A method of residual carrier removal in a nanowire-based device, the method comprising:

• providing a semiconductor nanowire;
• forming a semiconductor junction within the semiconductor nanowire;
• forming a residual carrier sink proximal to the semiconductor junction adjacent to a surface of the semiconductor nanowire;
• and
• removing residual carriers from the semiconductor junction using the residual carrier sink,
• wherein removing residual carriers using the residual carrier sink employs one or both of enhanced recombination and biased residual carrier extraction, and wherein the nanowire-based device is one of an optical detector and an optical modulator.