A surface emitting laser includes a lower multilayer mirror, an active layer, and an upper multilayer mirror stacked onto a substrate. A first current confinement layer having a first electrically conductive region and a first insulating region is formed above or below the active layer using a first trench structure. A second current confinement layer having a second electrically conductive region and a second insulating region is formed above or below the first current confinement layer using a second trench structure. The first and second trench structures extend from a top surface of the upper multilayer mirror towards the substrate such that the second trench structure surrounds the first trench structure. When the surface emitting laser is viewed in an in-plane direction of the substrate, a boundary between the first electrically conductive region and the first insulating region is disposed inside the second electrically conductive region.