Surface-emission laser diode and surface-emission laser array, optical interconnection system, optical communication system, electrophotographic system, and optical disk system

A surface-emission laser diode, comprising:

• an active layer;
• a pair of cavity spacer layers formed at both sides of said active layer;
• a current confinement structure defining a current injection region into said active layer;
• a pair of distributed Bragg reflectors opposing with each other across a structure formed of said active layer and said cavity spacer layers;
• and
• a region containing an oxide of Al provided in correspondence to a part spatially overlapping with a center of said current injection region in a laser cavity direction,
• said current confinement structure being formed by a selective oxidation process of a semiconductor layer,
• said pair of distributed Bragg reflectors being formed of semiconductor materials, and
• said region containing an oxide of Al having a relatively low refractive index as compared with a surrounding region in any of said semiconductor distributed Bragg reflector or said cavity spacer layer,
• wherein there is provided any of a GaAs layer or a GaInP mixed crystal layer adjacent with an AlGaAs mixed crystal layer constituting said region of relatively low refractive index with respect to said surrounding region not made with ion implantation of molecules containing oxygen and located on an identical plane of said part where said ion implantation of said molecules has been made.