Patent ID: 7943407

Claim:
A method for manufacturing a semiconductor laser comprising the steps of: forming a mask layer having a stripe-shaped mask portion corresponding to a ridge stripe to be formed on a nitride-based group III-V compound semiconductor layer in which a laser structure is formed; etching the nitride-based group III-V compound semiconductor layer to a predetermined depth using the mask layer to form the ridge stripe; forming a resist to cover the mask layer and the nitride-based group III-V compound semiconductor layer so that the thickness of the resist is minimized on a portion of the stripe-shaped mask portion of the mask layer, which corresponds to a current injection region of the ridge stripe; etching-back the resist until the stripe-shaped mask portion of the mask layer is exposed; removing the exposed stripe-shaped mask portion of the mask layer by etching to expose the upper surface of the ridge stripe; forming a metal film for forming an electrode on the resist and the exposed ridge stripe to form an electrode on the ridge stripe; removing the resist together with the metal film formed thereon; and removing the mask layer by etching after removing the resist.