A surface emitting laser element which emits light in a direction perpendicular to a surface of a substrate of the surface emitting laser element, comprising: a resonator structural body including an active layer; and first and second semiconductor distributed Bragg reflectors (107, 103) which sandwich the resonator structural body, the first semiconductor distributed Bragg reflector including a confinement structure which can confine an injection current and a lateral mode of oscillation light at the same time by surrounding a current passing through region with an oxide containing at least an oxide formed by oxidizing a part of a layer to be selectively oxidized containing aluminum; wherein a thickness of the layer to be selectively oxidized is at least 25 nm, characterized in that: a temperature when an oscillation threshold current becomes a minimum value is 25 °C or less; a maximum thickness of the oxide surrounding the current passing through region is 110 nm or less; the layer to be selectively oxidized is a part of low refractive index layers of the first semiconductor distributed Bragg reflector; the low refractive index layer including the layer to be selectively oxidized includes a first layer adjacent to the layer to be selectively oxidized and a second layer adjacent to the first layer; and a content rate of aluminum in the first layer is lower than the content rate of aluminum in the layer to be selectively oxidized, and is higher than the content rate of aluminum in the second layer, and at least one of: a difference between the content rate of aluminum in the layer to be selectively oxidized and the content rate of aluminum in the first layer is 5% or more and 20% or less; and a difference between the content rate of aluminum in the layer to be selectively oxidized and the content rate of aluminum in the second layer is more than 20%. a resonator structural body including an active layer; and first and second semiconductor distributed Bragg reflectors (107, 103) which sandwich the resonator structural body, the first semiconductor distributed Bragg reflector including a confinement structure which can confine an injection current and a lateral mode of oscillation light at the same time by surrounding a current passing through region with an oxide containing at least an oxide formed by oxidizing a part of a layer to be selectively oxidized containing aluminum; wherein a thickness of the layer to be selectively oxidized is at least 25 nm, characterized in that: a temperature when an oscillation threshold current becomes a minimum value is 25 °C or less; a maximum thickness of the oxide surrounding the current passing through region is 110 nm or less; the layer to be selectively oxidized is a part of low refractive index layers of the first semiconductor distributed Bragg reflector; the low refractive index layer including the layer to be selectively oxidized includes a first layer adjacent to the layer to be selectively oxidized and a second layer adjacent to the first layer; and a content rate of aluminum in the first layer is lower than the content rate of aluminum in the layer to be selectively oxidized, and is higher than the content rate of aluminum in the second layer, and at least one of: a difference between the content rate of aluminum in the layer to be selectively oxidized and the content rate of aluminum in the first layer is 5% or more and 20% or less; and a difference between the content rate of aluminum in the layer to be selectively oxidized and the content rate of aluminum in the second layer is more than 20%. a temperature when an oscillation threshold current becomes a minimum value is 25 °C or less; a maximum thickness of the oxide surrounding the current passing through region is 110 nm or less; the layer to be selectively oxidized is a part of low refractive index layers of the first semiconductor distributed Bragg reflector; the low refractive index layer including the layer to be selectively oxidized includes a first layer adjacent to the layer to be selectively oxidized and a second layer adjacent to the first layer; and a content rate of aluminum in the first layer is lower than the content rate of aluminum in the layer to be selectively oxidized, and is higher than the content rate of aluminum in the second layer, and at least one of: a difference between the content rate of aluminum in the layer to be selectively oxidized and the content rate of aluminum in the first layer is 5% or more and 20% or less; and a difference between the content rate of aluminum in the layer to be selectively oxidized and the content rate of aluminum in the second layer is more than 20%. a difference between the content rate of aluminum in the layer to be selectively oxidized and the content rate of aluminum in the first layer is 5% or more and 20% or less; and a difference between the content rate of aluminum in the layer to be selectively oxidized and the content rate of aluminum in the second layer is more than 20%.