Patent ID: 8111725

Claim:
A surface-emitting laser, comprising: a substrate having a principal plane, a normal of the principal plane being inclined with respect to one of crystal orientations <1 0 0> toward one of crystal orientations <1 1 1>, wherein the surface-emitting laser is configured to emit light in a direction perpendicular to the substrate; and multiple semiconductor layers stacked on the substrate, the semiconductor layers including a resonator structure including an active layer, and a semiconductor multilayer mirror stacked on the resonator structure and including a confined structure where a current passage area is surrounded by an oxidized area including at least an oxide generated by oxidation of a part of a selective oxidation layer containing aluminum, wherein when a first axis direction is parallel to a surface of the substrate and orthogonal to both the one of crystal orientations <1 0 0> and the one of crystal orientations <1 1 1> and a second axis direction is orthogonal to both the normal and the first axis direction, a thickness of a portion of the oxidized area where the oxidation has proceeded in the first axis direction is less than a thickness of a portion of the oxidized area where the oxidation has proceeded in the second axis direction; the semiconductor multilayer mirror includes low-refractive-index layers; the selective oxidation layer is inserted in one of the low-refractive-index layers, and the one of the low-refractive-index layers includes a first layer that is composed of a material having a low refractive index and is disposed adjacent to the selective oxidation layer and a second layer that is composed of a material having a low refractive index and is disposed adjacent to the first layer.