Patent ID: 8842707

Claim:
A semiconductor laser element, comprising: an active layer; a window region including a disordered portion formed by diffusion of a group-III vacancy, the window region including an impurity free disordered portion of the active layer; a non-window region including a portion of the active layer having a quantum well structure; and a layer near the active layer, the layer being doped with an impurity that preferentially substitutes a group-V site, wherein the impurity that preferentially substitutes the group-V site has a diffusion coefficient equal to or smaller than 3×10 −14 cm 2 /s at a thermal treatment temperature at which the disordered portion is formed, the layer near the active layer is a guide layer formed directly on the active layer, the impurity that preferentially substitutes the group-V site is doped at least on the active layer side of the guide layer, and a concentration of the impurity that preferentially substitutes the group-V site in the guide layer is from 0.1×10 17 cm −3 to 1×10 17 cm −3 , and wherein a difference between an energy band gap in the window region and an energy band gap in the non-window region is equal to or larger than 50 meV.