Method of manufacturing surface-emitting laser element

A method of manufacturing a surface-emitting laser element, comprising:

• (a) forming a first conductivity-type first semiconductor layer including a photonic crystal layer on a translucent substrate;
• (b) performing crystal growth on the first semiconductor layer to form an active layer and a second conductivity-type second semiconductor layer in this order;
• (c) performing spectrometry in which irradiation light is incident from a surface of the second semiconductor layer, and a layer thickness from the surface to a position where the irradiation light is reflected by the photonic crystal layer is measured;
• (d) forming a translucent electrode, on the second semiconductor layer, having a layer thickness calculated on the basis of an optical path length corresponding to the layer thickness obtained through the spectrometry;
• and
• (e) forming a light reflection layer on the translucent electrode, wherein the layer thickness of the translucent electrode is determined such that a light intensity of interference light of (i) direct diffracted light radiated from the photonic crystal layer and emitted from a back surface of the substrate and (ii) reflected diffracted light radiated from the photonic crystal layer and reflected by the light reflection layer is larger than a light intensity of the direct diffracted light.