The surface leakage in InAs/GaSb type-II superlattice (T2SL) is studied experimentally and theoretically for photodiodes with small sizes down to 10 × 10  μm2. The dependence of dark current density on mesa size is studied at 110 and 200 K, and surface leakage is shown to impact both generation–recombination (GR) and diffusion dark current mechanisms. A quasi-3-dimensional model to simulate the fabrication process using surface traps on the pixel's sidewall is presented and is used to accurately represent the dark current of large and small pixels with surface leakage in the different temperature regimes. The simulations confirmed that the surface leakage current has a GR and diffusion component at low and high temperature, respectively. Finally, the surface leakage current has been correlated with the change in minority carrier concentration at the surface due to the presence of donor traps.

Herein, results from noise and dark current density studies on InAs/GaSb type‐II superlattice IR detectors are presented. The activation energy of the dark current density is used to identify the dominating dark current mechanisms (generation–recombination (GR), tunneling, or diffusion dark current) as a function of temperature and bias. The bias evolution of the power spectral density (PSD) is measured in dark conditions for several temperatures. At the operating bias of the detectors, the arrays show a white noise–dominated spectrum up to 100 K with a minor 1/f contribution (corner frequency around 10 Hz), while for higher temperatures the spectra are 1/f dominated. The 1/f noise component is compared to the dominating dark current mechanism in the same temperature and bias regimes. A strong correlation between the 1/f noise component and the dominating dark current (I) is found, with the PSD proportional to I for tunneling currents and I2 for GR and diffusion currents. Very low noise coefficients of αGR = 4.8 × 10−9 Hz−1, αdiff = 1.9 × 10−10 Hz−1, and αtun = 2.1 × 10−16 A Hz−1 are observed for these detectors.

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