Vertical cavity light-emitting element

A vertical cavity light-emitting element, comprising:

• a gallium-nitride-based semiconductor substrate;
• a first multilayer reflector made of a nitride semiconductor formed on the substrate;
• a semiconductor structure layer including a first semiconductor layer, an active layer, and a second semiconductor layer, the first semiconductor layer being made of a nitride semiconductor having a first conductivity type formed on the first multilayer reflector, the active layer being made of a nitride semiconductor formed on the first semiconductor layer, and the second semiconductor layer being formed on the active layer and made of a nitride semiconductor having a second conductivity type opposite to the first conductivity type;
• a first electrode layer that is electrically in contact with the first semiconductor layer of the semiconductor structure layer;
• a second electrode layer formed on an upper surface of the semiconductor structure layer, the second electrode layer being electrically in contact with the second semiconductor layer of the semiconductor structure layer in one region of the upper surface;
• and
• a second multilayer reflector formed to cover the one region on the second electrode layer, the second multilayer reflector constituting a resonator with the first multilayer reflector,
• wherein the semiconductor structure layer has one recessed structure including one or a plurality of recessed portions passing through the active layer from the upper surface in a region surrounding the one region,
• wherein a surface of the gallium-nitride-based semiconductor substrate on which the first multilayer reflector is formed is a surface offset from the c-plane to one crystal plane which is one of an m-plane and an a-plane, and
• wherein one or a plurality of groove portions provided on the upper surface of the semiconductor structure layer extend to a region in a direction along one axis perpendicular to the one crystal plane when viewed from the one region and are uniform in a region in a direction perpendicular to the direction along the one axis.