A surface emitting laser is provided with a first multilayer Bragg reflecting mirror including a first layer, a second multilayer Bragg reflecting mirror including a second layer, and an optical resonator unit that is held between these multilayer Bragg reflecting mirrors and includes an active layer. Further, the optical resonator unit contacts with the first layer and second layer respectively. The effective refraction index neff of the resonator unit is larger than either the first layer or the second layer, and an optical length neffL of the optical resonator unit has a relationship with an oscillating wavelength λ of the surface emitting laser to satisfy the following relationship: 0.5λ