Patent ID: 7948004

Claim:
A self-scanning light source head comprising: a substrate; surface emitting semiconductor lasers arranged in an array on the substrate; and at least one thyristor disposed on the substrate and serving as a switching element selectively turning ON and OFF light emission of the surface emitting semiconductor lasers; wherein the self-scanning light source head has the thyristor in the element structure of the surface emitting semiconductor laser; wherein the surface emitting semiconductor laser has a configuration such that a lower semiconductor multilayer film reflecting layer, a semiconductor active layer, and an upper semiconductor multilayer film reflecting layer forming a resonator with the lower multilayer film reflecting layer are successively laminated on a semiconductor substrate; wherein the lower semiconductor multilayer film reflecting layer contains a combination of a plurality of configurations of n-configuration and p-configuration semiconductor multilayer film reflecting layers; and wherein an end of a portion of a top layer of the combination of the plurality of configurations of n-configuration and p-configuration semiconductor multilayer film reflecting layers is reduced in the film thickness as compared with other portions; at least one upper layer is laminated at a portion other than the film thickness-reduced portion; and a gate electrode is disposed at the film thickness-reduced portion.