Patent ID: 6829274
Filing Date: 2004-12-07
Classification: H01S

Abstract:
A surface emitting semiconductor laser device comprising:a substrate; a pair of semiconductor multilayer reflectors overlying said substrate, a distance and an effective refractive index of a semiconductor material between said pair of semiconductor multilayer reflectors dominating a longitudinal mode wavelength of light that can oscillate between the pair of semiconductor multilayer reflectors; at least a portion of an active layer sandwiched between said pair of semiconductor multilayer reflectors, said active layer including a quantum well structure that predominantly determines a gain profile spectrum and a gain peak wavelength; a current confinement layer disposed in a vicinity of said active layer so as to confine an injection current to a predetermined current injection region within said at least a portion of said active layer, wherein said current confinement layer forms an effective refractive index profile in a lateral direction relative to a direction of light output, said effective refractive index profile having a higher refractive index in at least a portion of said predetermined current injection region than outside of said predetermined region in said active layer, said effective refractive index profile dominantly determines a fundamental transverse mode wavelength, and the fundamental transverse mode wavelength being shorter than or equal to the peak-gain wavelength, wherein a wavelength of the laser light output from the laser device is substantially at the fundamental transverse mode wavelength, and is not a multi-mode laser light.