Surface emitting laser having improved pumping efficiency

A monolithic laser array comprising:

• a plurality of surface emitting lasers formed on a common substrate, each of said surface emitting lasers including:
• a first distributed feedback mirror comprising a plurality of layers formed on the substrate;
• an active gain medium formed on the first mirror comprising at least one active, optically emitting layer and one barrier layer;
• a second distributed feedback mirror comprising a plurality of layers formed on the active gain medium, said first and second mirrors defining a resonant cavity for supporting a standing wave optical field at a designed wavelength of operation;
• said first and second mirrors having first and second reflective bandwidths that respectively include first and second transmissive bandwidths for receiving optical pumping energy, said first and second reflective bandwidths being shifted in wavelength relative to one another such that the first and second transmissive bandwidths are located at distinct wavelengths.