SEMICONDUCTOR LASER AND ITS MANUFACTURE

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a semiconductor laser the aspect ratio of which can be reduced, while the operating voltage of the laser is maintained at the same level. SOLUTION: In a semiconductor laser 1 provided with a ridge section 10 which becomes a current passage to an active layer 5 on the active layer 5, the main part of the ridge 10 is composed of a first layer (second p-type clad layer) 8 and a second layer (third p-type clad layer) 9 and, at the same time, the first layer 8 is composed of a layer having a higher etching rate than the second layer 9 has, and the inclined angle (a) of the lower part of the ridge section 10 is set at a larger value than that (b) of the upper part of the edge section 10.