Patent ID: 8188487

Claim:
A surface emitting laser, comprising: a substrate; a lower multilayer mirror; an active layer; an upper multilayer mirror, the lower multilayer mirror and the upper multilayer mirror being stacked on the substrate from lower to upper respectively with the active layer being contained therebetween; a first current confinement layer having a first electrically conductive region and a first insulating region and being formed above or below the active layer using a first trench structure; a second current confinement layer having a second electrically conductive region and a second insulating region and being formed above or below the first current confinement layer using a second trench structure, wherein the first and second trench structures extend from a top surface of the upper multilayer mirror towards the substrate such that the second trench structure surrounds the first trench structure, and wherein, when the surface emitting laser is viewed in an in-plane direction of the substrate, a boundary between the first electrically conductive region and the first insulating region is disposed inside the second electrically conductive region.