The present invention provides a photonic crystal surface emitting laser with which an arbitrary beam shape can be obtained and which enables design with a high degree of freedom. The surface emitting laser including a photonic crystal having a resonance mode in an in-plane direction parallel to a substrate includes a reflecting mirror for reflecting light emitted from the photonic crystal in a normal direction of the substrate and a spacer layer interposed between the reflecting mirror and the photonic crystal, wherein a nonuniform in-plane distribution is provided to the characteristics of one of the reflecting mirror and the spacer layer, so that a Q-value, which is a resonator characteristic in the normal direction of the substrate in the surface emitting laser, has a nonuniform in-plane distribution.