Patent ID: 8139620

Claim:
A nitride semiconductor laser device comprising: a substrate; and a nitride semiconductor layer having a first nitride semiconductor layer, an active layer, and a second nitride semiconductor layer stacked in this order on the substrate so that a ridge is formed by a part of the second nitride semiconductor layer, the nitride semiconductor layer being arranged so that the nitride laser device emits laser beam having a wavelength of about 440 nm or more, a surface of the second nitride semiconductor layer other than the ridge including a generally flat part and first and second grooves which extend along the ridge in a resonator direction, the first groove being formed continuous to a first side surface of the ridge, the second groove being formed continuous to a second side surface of the ridge which is opposite to the first side surface, the generally flat part of the surface of the second nitride semiconductor layer being disposed at a level higher than a bottom surface of each of the first and second grooves and lower than a top surface of the part of the second nitride semiconductor layer defining the ridge as measured from the substrate, and the bottom surface of each of the first and second grooves being positioned in the second nitride semiconductor layer.