Patent ID: 8422531

Claim:
A surface emitting semiconductor laser comprising: a substrate; a first semiconductor multilayer reflector of a first conduction type that is formed on the substrate and is composed of stacked pairs of relatively high refractive index layers and relatively low refractive index layers; a cavity extending region formed on the first semiconductor multilayer reflector; an active region formed on the cavity extending region; and a second semiconductor multilayer reflector of a second conduction type that is formed on the active region and is composed of stacked pairs of relatively high refractive index layers and relatively low refractive index layers, wherein: a cavity including the cavity extending region and the active region has a length greater than an oscillation wavelength, and at least three resonance wavelengths are included in a reflection band of the cavity; a difference in refractive index between the relatively high refractive index layers and the relatively low refractive index layers of one of the first and second semiconductor multilayer reflectors that has a smaller reflectance at the at least three resonance wavelengths is smaller than that in refractive index between the relatively high refractive index layers and the relatively low refractive index layers of another one of the first and second semiconductor multilayer reflectors that has a greater reflectance; the reflectance at a desired one of the at least three resonance wavelengths of said one of the first and second semiconductor multilayer reflectors that has the smaller reflectance is equal to or greater than 99% and the reflectance at a remaining another resonance wavelength thereof is less than 99%, and the reflectance at the desired one and the remaining another resonance wavelengths of said one of the first and second semiconductor multilayer reflectors that has the greater reflectance is equal to or greater than 99%.