Patent ID: 8119429

Claim:
A method for fabricating a nitride semiconductor laser device including a current blocking layer with an opening for narrowing a current flowing into an active layer, the method comprising: the step (a) of forming, on the active layer, a p-type first nitride semiconductor layer, an n-type second nitride semiconductor layer, and an n-type third nitride semiconductor layer constituting the current blocking layer in this order; the step (b) of etching part of the third nitride semiconductor layer by using an alkali solution and irradiating the part with light to form the opening of the current blocking layer; and the step (c) of forming a p-type fourth nitride semiconductor layer on the third nitride semiconductor layer to cover the opening of the current blocking layer, wherein the second nitride semiconductor layer has a smaller energy gap than the third nitride semiconductor layer, a depletion region is formed between the first nitride semiconductor layer and the second nitride semiconductor layer, and the second nitride semiconductor layer has a thickness greater than the width of a portion of the depletion region formed in the second nitride semiconductor layer, and in the step (b), the etching stops at an edge of the depletion region in the n-type second nitride semiconductor layer.