Patent ID: 8705585

Claim:
A surface-emitting laser array comprising: a substrate; an element-arrangement portion provided on the substrate and including a plurality of surface-emitting laser elements arranged therein; and a flat part provided on the substrate and arranged in a circumference of the element-arrangement portion in an in-surface direction of the substrate, wherein: each of the plurality of surface-emitting laser elements includes a mesa structure that emits a laser beam; each of the flat part and the element-arrangement portion includes an absorption layer that is arranged to absorb a difference of an etching depth in the in-surface direction at a time of forming the mesa structures of the plurality of surface-emitting laser elements; and an etching bottom in an inter-element portion of the plurality of surface-emitting laser elements in the element-arrangement portion and an etching bottom in the flat part are located in the absorption layer in a direction perpendicular to the substrate and the etching bottom in the inter-element portion is higher than the etching bottom in the flat part.