Asymmetry in the dark current low frequency noise characteristics of B-B and B-C quantum well infrared photodetectors from 10 to 80 K Dark current mechanisms of terahertz quantum-well photodetectors (THz QWPs) are systematically investigated experimentally and theoretically by measuring two newly designed structures combined with samples reported previously. In contrast to previous investigations, scattering-assisted tunneling dark current is found to cause significant contributions to total dark current. A criterion is also proposed to determine the major dark current mechanism at different peak response frequencies. We further determine background limited performance (BLIP) temperatures, which decrease both experimentally and theoretically as the electric field increases. This work gives good description of dark current mechanism for QWPs in the THz region and is extended to determine the transition fields and BLIP temperatures with response peaks from 3 to 12 THz. V C 2014 AIP Publishing LLC. [http://dx.

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