NITRIDE SEMICONDUCTOR LASER ELEMENT

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To prevent a nitride semiconductor laser element from deteriorating by sequentially forming an n-type nitride semiconductor, an active layer of quantum well structure having a barrier layer of a specified film thickness and a well layer of a specified film thickness containing In, and a p-type nitride semiconductor on a substrate. SOLUTION: An n-type contact layer 2, an crack preventing layer 3, an n-type multilayer clad layer 4 including AlGaN, an n-type guide layer 5 of undoped GaN, an active layer 6 of a quantum well structure which includes a barrier layer and a well layer, and a p-type electron trap layer 7 of AlGaN are formed sequentially on a nitride semiconductor substrate 1. The active layer 6 has a quantum well structure comprising a well layer containing In, and a barrier layer having band gap energy higher than that of the well layer. In the quantum well structure of the active layer 6, the barrier wall layer has a film thickness of 100 or larger, and the film thickness ratio between the well layer and the barrier layer is preferably 1:3 to 1:10, 1:4 to 1:7.