Method for producing a surface-emitting laser

Abstract

A method for producing a surface-emitting laser, includes the steps of: forming a mask pattern to define a top mirror on a semiconductor substrate, the semiconductor substrate having a first semiconductor multilayer formed on the semiconductor substrate, a second semiconductor multilayer formed on the first semiconductor multilayer, and a third semiconductor multilayer formed on the second semiconductor multilayer, the first semiconductor multilayer constituting a bottom mirror, the second semiconductor layer including an upper barrier layer and a lower barrier layer, and an active layer sandwiched between the upper and lower barrier layers, the third semiconductor multilayer constituting a top mirror; forming the top mirror by partially removing the third semiconductor layer by dry etching using the mask pattern as a mask until the surface of the upper barrier layer of the second semiconductor multilayer is exposed; forming an etching protective film at least on the side of the top mirror; partially removing the active layer, the upper barrier layer, and the lower barrier layer by dry etching using the mask pattern and the etching protective film as masks; and partially removing the active layer, the upper barrier layer, and the lower barrier layer by wet etching so that the active layer has an area smaller than that of the top mirror.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.