Patent ID: 8311072

Claim:
A surface emitting laser array comprising a plurality of surface emitting lasers arranged in an array, each of the surface emitting lasers being provided with a two-dimensional photonic crystal having a resonance mode in an in-plane direction and with an active layer, wherein the surface emitting laser has a mesa-shaped inclined side wall surface, wherein when a maximum light-receiving angle with respect to the mesa-shaped inclined side wall surface at which an incident light is coupled with a waveguide containing the two-dimensional photonic crystal is denoted as θmax°, an angle formed by a plane of the two-dimensional photonic crystal and the mesa-shaped inclined side wall surface is controlled so as to exceed (90+θmax)° or be smaller than (90−θmax)° and wherein the mesa-shaped inclined side wall surface is formed of a curved surface having the angle exceeding (90+θmax)° or smaller than (90−θmax)°.