Patent ID: 8049243

Claim:
A gallium nitride-based compound semiconductor light emitting device comprising an n-type semiconductor layer, a light emitting layer, and a p-type semiconductor layer that are composed of gallium nitride-based compound semiconductors and are deposited in that order on a substrate, and further comprising a negative electrode and a positive electrode that are in contact with the n-type semiconductor layer and the p-type semiconductor layer, respectively, wherein the positive electrode has a translucent electrode composed of a three-layer structure including a contact metal layer that contacts at least the p-type semiconductor layer, a current diffusion layer provided on the contact metal layer and having conductivity greater than that of the contact metal layer, and a bonding pad layer provided on the current diffusion layer, a first mixed positive electrode-metal layer is present in the p-type semiconductor layer at the positive-electrode-side surface, the first mixed positive electrode-metal layer includes a metal that forms the contact metal layer, a percentage of the amount of the metal that forms the contact metal layer in the first mixed positive electrode-metal layer to a total amount of metals in the first mixed positive electrode-metal layer is 0.01 to 30 atomic percent, a second mixed semiconductor-metal layer is present in the contact metal layer at the p-type-semiconductor-layer-side surface, the second mixed semiconductor-metal layer includes a group III metal, a percentage of the amount of the group III metal in the second mixed semiconductor-metal layer to a total amount of metals in the second mixed semiconductor-metal layer is 0.1 to 50 atomic percent, and the contact metal layer is of a platinum group metal or Ag.