A vertical-cavity surface-emitting laser (VCSEL) may include at least one layer forming a grating structure with a selected period, depth, and fill factor, wherein the period, the depth, and the fill factor of the grating structure are configured to achieve greater than a threshold level of efficiency for the VCSEL, less than a threshold current increase caused by power loss from higher order diffraction associated with the grating structure, and greater than a threshold polarization selectivity at an emission wavelength of the VCSEL.