Surface emitting second harmonic generating device

Abstract

A surface emitting second harmonic generating device capable of generating a second harmonic at room temperatures with high efficiency and output power, and which has a small size, low energy consumption and a low manufacturing cost. A second harmonic is efficiently generated when the <100>direction of semiconductor crystals within a cavity makes an angle of 5.degree. or more with respect to the direction of the light rays (particularly when one of the <111>, <211> and <110> directions approximately matches the direction of the light rays). Further, if a second harmonic generating layer composed of a III-V or II-VI compound semiconductor is provided between the output end reflector and the spacer layer, the second harmonic may be generated with even greater efficiency. In addition, the spacer layer may be formed by a superlattice, as may the active layer and the spacer layers. A second harmonic may also be efficiently generated by utilizing the spacer layer and the active layer as phase-matching layers.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.