Patent ID: 7923275

Claim:
A manufacturing method of a surface emitting laser comprising the steps of: forming a lower Bragg reflector by forming a plurality of semiconductor layers on top of a semiconductor substrate comprising alternately stacked layers of a first semiconductor and layers of a second semiconductor and an uppermost layer formed of a third semiconductor; forming a resonator by performing the steps of forming a lower semiconductor layer on top of the lower Bragg reflector, forming an active layer on top of the lower semiconductor layer, and forming an upper semiconductor layer on top of the active layer; forming an upper Bragg reflector by forming a plurality of semiconductor layers comprising a lowermost layer formed of the third semiconductor and alternately stacked layers of the first semiconductor and layers of the second semiconductor; forming etching grooves reaching the uppermost layer of the plurality of semiconductor layers of the lower Bragg reflector by etching at least the plurality of semiconductor layers in the upper Bragg reflector, the upper semiconductor layer, the active layer, and the lower semiconductor layer; and forming air gaps in the uppermost layer among the plurality of semiconductor layers in the lower Bragg reflector and in the lowermost layer among the plurality of semiconductor layers of the upper Bragg reflector, respectively, by etching the uppermost and lowermost layers in a lateral direction from the etching grooves; and forming insulating layers having apertures, which are smaller than the respective air gaps, by selectively oxidizing at least parts of the respective upper and lower semiconductor layers, wherein the step of forming the air gaps comprises the step of wet-etching selectively only to the third semiconductor.