Surface-emitting laser device and method for manufacturing surface-emitting laser device

A surface-emitting laser device having a resonator layer and a semiconductor structure layer which constitutes a light emitting element, in which the surface-emitting laser device emits light in a direction orthogonal to the resonator layer and the semiconductor structure layer is made of hexagonal nitride semiconductor, comprising:

• a first cladding layer of a first conductive type;
• a first guide layer provided on the first cladding layer;
• an active layer provided on the first guide layer;
• a second guide layer provided on the active layer;
• and
• a second cladding layer of a second conductive type provided on the second guide layer, the second conductive type being opposite to the first conductive type;
• wherein
• either one of the first guide layer and the second guide layer comprises a photonic crystal layer including air holes two-dimensionally periodically arranged within a plane parallel to the photonic crystal layer, a lower guide layer provided below the photonic crystal layer and an embedding layer provided above the photonic crystal layer;
• a diameter distribution of the air holes in the photonic crystal layer is a bimodal distribution including two unimodal distributions each having a standard deviation (σ) of 1 nm or less, the unimodal distributions being separated so that their respective 3σ ranges do not overlap, and
• a proportion of the air holes belonging to either one of the unimodal distributions having a greater average air-hole diameter to all the air holes is 80% or higher.