VERTICAL-CAVITY SURFACE-EMITTING LASER

摘要

A vertical cavity surface emitting laser (10) includes an active layer (50) that includes a quantum well, a first cladding layer (40) and a second cladding layer (60) between which the active layer (50) is interposed, a first multilayer reflector layer (30) arranged on a side of the first cladding layer (40) opposite to that on which the active layer (50) is arranged, a second multilayer reflector layer (80) arranged on a side of the second cladding layer (60) opposite to that on which the active layer (50) is arranged, a first electrode (91) that is arranged on a side of the first multilayer reflector layer (30) opposite to that on which the first cladding layer (40) is arranged, and a second electrode (92) that is arranged on a side of the second multilayer reflector layer (80) opposite to that on which the second cladding layer (60) is arranged. At least one of the first cladding layer (40) and the second cladding layer (60) includes a low activity energy layer (42, 62) having a band gap that is smaller than a smallest band gap of a optical confinement layer for forming the quantum well of the active layer (50) and larger than a band gap of the quantum well.