Patent ID: 7899102

Claim:
A semiconductor laser comprising: a nitride III-V compound semiconductor substrate configured to have a first planar area, a second planar area, and a third planar area in a major surface, the first planar area being formed of a C-plane, the second planar area being continuous with the first planar area and being formed of a semipolar plane inclined to the first planar area, the third planar area being continuous with the second planar area and being formed of a C-plane parallel to the first planar area; a first cladding layer configured to be composed of a nitride III-V compound semiconductor on the major surface of the nitride III-V compound semiconductor substrate; an active layer configured to be composed of a nitride III-V compound semiconductor that exists on the first cladding layer and contains In; and a second cladding layer configured to be composed of a nitride III-V compound semiconductor on the active layer, wherein, a ridge stripe is provided in a partial portion of the second cladding layer above the second planar area, and In composition of partial portions of the active layer on both sides of the ridge stripe is higher than In composition of a partial portion of the active layer corresponding to the ridge stripe and/or thickness of the partial portions of the active layer on both the sides of the ridge stripe is larger than thickness of the partial portion of the active layer corresponding to the ridge stripe.