Patent ID: 7787511

Claim:
A method of fabricating a surface-emitting laser diode device that includes: an active layer; a resonator structure including a first distributed Bragg reflector and a second distributed Bragg reflector that face each other and sandwich the active layer; a hole passage that extends from a first electrode to the active layer; an electron passage that extends from a second electrode to the active layer; a hole restricting structure that is located in the hole passage and includes a non-oxide region that defines a region for confining holes to the active layer, and an oxide region surrounding the non-oxide region, each region containing Al as a constituent element; and an optical mode control structure that includes a non-oxide region provided in the resonator structure and an oxide region surrounding the non-oxide region, each region containing Al as a constituent element, and the area of the non-oxide region being smaller than the area of the hole restricting structure, the method comprising the steps of: forming the hole restricting structure including the oxide region and the non-oxide region by selectively oxidizing a semiconductor layer that contains Al as a constituent element; and forming the optical mode control structure including the oxide region and the non-oxide region by selectively oxidizing a semiconductor layer that contains Al as a constituent element, the step of forming the hole restricting structure and the step of forming the optical mode control structure being performed simultaneously, and the thickness of the semiconductor layer that is to form the hole restricting structure and contains Al as a constituent element being different from the thickness of the semiconductor layer that is to form the optical mode control structure and contains Al as a constituent element.