Provided are a vertical-cavity surface-emitting laser, a manufacturing method, a distance measuring device, and an electronic device. The vertical-cavity surface-emitting laser includes a lower electrode, a substrate, a lower Bragg reflector, an active area, a current limiting layer, an upper Bragg reflector, a protective layer, and an upper electrode. The upper electrode includes at least two sub-electrodes, the at least two sub-electrodes are electrically connected, and the at least two sub-electrodes define one or more light-exiting windows. Each sub-electrode is provided with a corresponding light-exiting window so that the luminous power is increased. Each sub-electrode defines the light-exiting window, and a plurality of sub-electrodes are electrically connected so that the distribution uniformity of the light spots is increased, and the quality of the laser beam is improved.

A two-dimensional photonic-crystal laser formed by sandwiching, between a first electrode and a second electrode, a layered body including an active layer and a two-dimensional photonic-crystal layer in which modified refractive index areas having a refractive index different from a refractive index of a plate-shaped base body are periodically arranged two-dimensionally on the base body. The first electrode is divided into a plurality of partial electrodes, and the second electrode is a frame-shaped electrode including a frame-shaped portion made of a conductor, the second electrode having a window portion which is a space inside the frame-shaped portion being arranged to face a region enclosing a plurality of the partial electrodes. A lens provided on the side opposite to the layered body of the second electrode in a manner covering the entire window portion is included.

A light-emitting element includes a mesa structure in which a first compound semiconductor layer of a first conductivity type, an active layer, and a second compound semiconductor layer of a second conductivity type are disposed in that order, wherein at least one of the first compound semiconductor layer and the second compound semiconductor layer has a current constriction region surrounded by an insulation region extending inward from a sidewall portion of the mesa structure; a wall structure disposed so as to surround the mesa structure; at least one bridge structure connecting the mesa structure and the wall structure, the wall structure and the bridge structure each having the same layer structure as the portion of the mesa structure in which the insulation region is provided; a first electrode; and a second electrode disposed on a top face of the wall structure.

In one example, a vertical cavity surface emitting laser (VCSEL) may include an active region to produce light at a wavelength, an emission surface to emit the light at the wavelength, a first oxide region spaced apart from the active region by a distance of at least a half-wavelength of the wavelength, a first oxide aperture in the first oxide region, a second oxide region between the first oxide region and the second oxide region, and a second oxide aperture in the second oxide region. The emitted light may have a divergence angle that is based on the respective positions and thicknesses of the first oxide region and the second oxide region.

A vertical cavity surface emitting laser (VCSEL) has first and second electrical contacts, and an optical resonator. The optical resonator has first and second distributed Bragg reflectors (DBRs), an active layer, a distributed heterojunction bipolar phototransistor (DHBP), and an optical guide. The DHBP has a collector layer, light sensitive layer; a base layer; and an emitter layer. There is an optical coupling between the active layer and the DHBP for providing an active carrier confinement by the DHBP. The optical guide guides an optical mode within the optical resonator during operation. The optical guide is outside a current flow which can be provided by the first and second electrical contacts during operation of the VCSEL. The optical guide is outside a layer sequence between the first and second electrical contacts in the vertical direction of the VCSEL. The optical guide has an oxide aperture arranged in the second DBR.

An optoelectronic device includes a semiconductor substrate having first and second faces. A first array of emitters are formed on the first face of the semiconductor substrate and are configured to emit respective beams of radiation through the substrate. Electrical connections are coupled to actuate selectively first and second sets of the emitters in the first array. A second array of microlenses are formed on the second face of the semiconductor substrate in respective alignment with the emitters in at least one of the first and second sets and are configured to focus the beams emitted from the emitters in the at least one of the first and second sets so that the beams are transmitted from the second face with different, respective first and second focal properties.

In an embodiment a semiconductor laser diode includes a semiconductor layer sequence comprising an active layer having a main extension plane, the semiconductor layer sequence configured to generate light in an active region and radiate the light via a light-outcoupling surface, wherein the active region extends from a rear surface opposite the light-outcoupling surface to the light-outcoupling surface along a longitudinal direction in the main extension plane and a continuous contact structure directly disposed on a surface of the semiconductor layer sequence, wherein the contact structure comprises in at least a first contact region a first electrical contact material in direct contact with the surface region and in at least a second contact region a second electrical contact material in direct contact with the surface region, wherein the first and second contact regions adjoin one another.

A surface-emitting semiconductor laser includes a substrate, a first electrode provided in contact with the substrate, a first light reflection layer provided over the substrate, a second light reflection layer provided over the substrate, an active layer provided between the second light reflection layer and the first light reflection layer, a current confining layer that is provided between the active layer and the second light reflection layer and includes a current injection region, a second electrode provided over the substrate, with the second light reflection layer being interposed between the second electrode and the substrate, and a contact layer that is provided between the second electrode and the second light reflection layer and includes a contact region that is in contact with the second electrode, in which the contact region has a smaller area than an area of the current injection region.

The present embodiment relates to a single semiconductor light-emitting element including a plurality of light-emitting portions each of which is capable of generating light of a desired beam projection pattern and a method for manufacturing the semiconductor light-emitting element. In the semiconductor light-emitting element, an active layer and a phase modulation layer are formed on a common substrate layer, and the phase modulation layer includes at least a plurality of phase modulation regions arranged along the common substrate layer. The plurality of phase modulation regions are obtained by separating the phase modulation layer into a plurality of places after manufacturing the phase modulation layer, and as a result, the semiconductor light-emitting element provided with a plurality of light-emitting portions that have been accurately aligned can be obtained through a simple manufacturing process as compared with the related art.

Modification of the topology of selected regions of individual VCSEL devices during fabrication is utilized to provide an array output beam with specific characteristics (e.g., “uniform” output power across the array). These physical features include at least the width of the metal aperture, the width of the oxide aperture, and/or the geometry of the contact ring structure on the top of the VCSEL device. The modifications may also function to adjust the numerical apertures (NAs) of the devices, the beam waist, wallplug efficiency, and the like.