A surface emitting semiconductor laser of a ring cavity type with a small cavity loss includes a ring cavity or resonator which is constructed wituout using at least one of a pair of special high-reflection multi-layer mirrors and formed in a plane approximately perpendicular to its substrate. The ring cavity is built by a parallel face parallel to the substrate and at least one total reflection face formed opposed to the parallel face. The total reflection face may be a mesa-shaped semiconductor face, a polygonal cone-shaped semiconductor face, a quadrangular cone-shaped semiconductor, a circular cone-shaped semiconductor face or the like.