Patent ID: 7684456

Claim:
A vertical-cavity laser diode, comprising: a substrate of GaAsP or GaInP; an active layer provided over said substrate, said active layer emitting optical radiation in the wavelength range of 630-650 nm; and a distributed Bragg reflector provided over said substrate in an optical path of said optical radiation emitted from said active layer in a direction perpendicularly to a plane of said active layer, said distributed Bragg reflector comprising a plurality of layers stacked over said substrate, said distributed Bragg reflector having a lattice constant between GaAs and GaP and consisting of at least two semiconductor layers of respective, mutually different compositions, at least one of said semiconductor layers having a composition represented as (Al x1 Ga 1-x1 ) y1 In 1-y1 As z1 P 1-z1 (0<x 1 ≦1, 0.5≦y 1 ≦1, 0<z 1 <1), said distributed Bragg reflector being in lattice matching with said substrate.