Patent ID: 8731012

Claim:
A surface emitting semiconductor laser, comprising: a substrate; a first semiconductor distributed bragg reflector of a first conductive type formed on the substrate; an active region formed on the first semiconductor distributed bragg reflector; a second semiconductor distributed bragg reflector of a second conductive type formed on the active region; a current confinement layer that confines current flowing in the active region; an optical confinement layer that confines light generated in the active region; and an optical loss unit that is provided in addition to the current confinement layer and the optical confinement layer, includes a center portion and a periphery portion in a predetermined direction, and gives a larger optical loss to the periphery portion than an optical loss given to the center portion, wherein Do 1 <Do 2 and Dn<Do 2 are satisfied, where Do 1 is a width of an optical confinement region of the optical confinement layer in the predetermined direction, Do 2 is a width of a current confinement region of the current confinement layer in the predetermined direction, and Dn is a width of the center portion of the optical loss unit in the predetermined direction.