Grating-coupled surface emitting laser structures utilize strain-compensated multiple quantum wells as the laser gain medium, and are used in combination with a very high grating coupling efficiency to reduce both output beam spot size and overall device size. The lasers are designed with grating coupling coefficients that are much higher (e.g., greater than 150 cm.sup.-1) than those employed in conventional grating coupled lasers to achieve a substantial increase in the laser energy coupled vertically through the top surface of the laser. This permits a substantial reduction of the output laser beam size so that it can be easily matched to multimode, and even single mode optical fibers. The use of the very high coupling coefficient is made possible because of the substantially increased optical gain provided by the strain-compensated multiple quantum well structure which offsets the substantially increased optical losses that are induced in the horizontal laser cavity by the increased grating coupling efficiency. Preferably, the increased coupling efficiency is achieved by moving the quantum well structure close to the surface gratings employed for the grating coupling, and increasing the refractive index difference between the grating material and a transparent electrode covering the gratings.