Patent ID: 8421837

Claim:
A surface-emitting laser element configured to emit light in a direction perpendicular to a substrate, comprising: the substrate provided with a normal direction of a principal plane inclining toward one direction of a crystallographic orientation of <1 1 1> with respect to one direction of a crystallographic orientation of <1 0 0>; and a mesa structure formed on the substrate and having a narrowed structure with an oxide surrounding an electric current passage area, said oxide including at least an oxide produced by oxidizing a part of a layer to be oxidized selectively, said layer containing aluminum, wherein: a shape of a cross-section of the electric current passage area parallel to the substrate is a square shape; one of two sides of the square shape orthogonal to each other is parallel to a first direction which is parallel to a surface of the substrate and orthogonal to both of said one direction of the crystallographic orientation of <1 0 0> and said one direction of the crystallographic orientation of <1 1 1>; another of the two sides of the square shape orthogonal to each other is parallel to a second direction which is parallel to a surface of the substrate and orthogonal to the first direction; a shape of a cross-section of the mesa structure parallel to the substrate is a rectangular shape; a longer side of two sides of the rectangular shape orthogonal to each other is parallel to the first direction; and a shorter side of the two sides of the rectangular shape orthogonal to each other is parallel to the second direction, and wherein a length obtained by subtracting a length of the electric current passage area in the second direction from a length of the mesa structure in the second direction is 0.937 to 0.995 times as large as a length obtained by subtracting a length of the electric current passage area in the first direction from a length of the mesa structure in the first direction.