A surface emitting laser includes a lower Bragg reflector, a resonator and an upper Bragg reflector. The resonator is provided on top of the lower Bragg reflector and includes an active layer, a lower semiconductor layer and an upper semiconductor layer. The upper Bragg reflector is provided on top of the resonator, and includes a plurality of semiconductor layers. In this surface emitting laser, the uppermost layer among the plurality of semiconductor layers in the lower Bragg reflector forms an air gap, which is larger than the aperture of the first insulating layer, while the lowermost layer among the plurality of semiconductor layers in the upper Bragg reflector forms an air gap, which is larger than the aperture of the second insulating layer.