Patent ID: 8385381

Claim:
A vertical cavity surface emitting laser comprising: a laser structure in which (1) a first multilayer film reflector, (2) an active layer having a light emitting central region, (3) a second multilayer film reflector, and (4) a transverse mode adjustment layer, are layered in this order on a substrate, wherein, one of the first multilayer film reflector and the second multilayer film reflector has a quadrangle shaped current injection region having in-plane anisotropy, in which an intersection of diagonal lines corresponds to the light emitting central region, the quadrangle shaped current injection region is a current aperture formed of an oxidized region, the second multilayer film reflector has a light emitting window provided in a region corresponding to one diagonal line of the quadrangle shaped current injection region and a pair of grooves provided in the second multilayer film reflector and the quadrangle shaped current injection region in the second multilayer film reflector with the light emitting window in between, the transverse mode adjustment layer is provided correspondingly to the light emitting window, reflectance of a peripheral region, which is a region of the light emitting window other than a central region corresponding to the light emitting central region, is lower than that of the central region, a portion of the transverse adjustment layer is formed on the central region and includes a first adjustment layer and a second adjustment layer, a portion of the transverse mode adjustment layer is formed on the peripheral region and includes a third adjustment layer, and the first adjustment layer comprises an oxide and each of the second adjustment layer and the third adjustment layer comprises a nitride.