Semiconductor light-emitting element and method for fabricating the same

A semiconductor light-emitting element comprising:

• a first Group III-V compound semiconductor;
• a current confining layer, which is made of a second Group III-V compound semiconductor that has grown on a selected surface area of the first Group III-V compound semiconductor and which has a striped opening extending along the length of a resonant cavity;
• and
• a third Group III-V compound semiconductor, which covers the surface of the first Group III-V compound semiconductor that is exposed through the striped opening and the surface of the current confining layer,
• wherein the current confining layer has two overhanging portions that overhang toward the striped opening, each of the two overhanging portions being made of a laterally grown layer,
• a first gap is provided between each of the two overhanging portions of the current confining layer and a part of the surface of the first Group III-V compound semiconductor, the first gap not being filled by the third Group III-V compound semiconductor, and
• wherein a second gap between the two overhanging portions facing each other is defined as W0, and a lateral size of each of the two overhanging portions is defined as W1, such that W0 is 1.5 μm or less and W0+2W1 is 3 μm or more.