Patent ID: 8742440

Claim:
A nitride semiconductor light-emitting element comprising: an n-type nitride semiconductor layer; a nitride semiconductor active layer provided on said n-type nitride semiconductor layer; and a p-type nitride semiconductor layer provided on said nitride semiconductor active layer, wherein said p-type nitride semiconductor layer includes a first p-type nitride semiconductor layer, a second p-type nitride semiconductor layer and a third p-type nitride semiconductor layer in this order from the side of said nitride semiconductor active layer, said first p-type nitride semiconductor layer- and said second p-type nitride semiconductor layer contain Al respectively, an average Al composition in said first p-type nitride semiconductor layer and an average Al composition in said second p-type nitride semiconductor layer are equivalent to each other, said third p-type nitride semiconductor layer has a smaller band gap than said second p-type nitride semiconductor layer, and the p-type impurity concentration in said second p-type nitride semiconductor layer and the p-type impurity concentration in said third p-type nitride semiconductor layer are lower than the p-type impurity concentration in said first p-type nitride semiconductor layer respectively.