Patent ID: 8218594

Claim:
A Vertical Cavity Surface Emitting Laser comprising on a substrate: a first multilayer film reflector; an active layer having a light emission region; a second multilayer film reflector; and a reflectance adjustment layer in this order from the substrate side, wherein the first multilayer film reflector and the second multilayer film reflector have a laminated structure in which reflectance of oscillation wavelength λ x is almost constant without depending on temperature change, the active layer is made of a material with which a maximum gain is obtained at a temperature higher than an ambient temperature, and the reflectance adjustment layer has a laminated structure in which difference ΔR (=R x −R y ) between reflectance R x of a region opposed to a central region of the light emission region and reflectance R y of a region opposed to an outer edge region of the light emission region is increased associated with temperature increase from the ambient temperature to a high temperature.