Vertical‐cavity surface‐emitting lasers (VCSELs) have been transferred from their original GaAs substrates to Cu substrates and continuous wave operation has been obtained on the VCSELs after epitaxial transfer. The resultant measurements show a doubling of the output power and a 20% reduction in the thermal impedance. Increased optical power is explained by improved thermal heat sinking as measured from the lasing spectra of horizontal‐cavity edge‐emitting lasers fabricated from the same VCSEL material. ©1996 American Institute of Physics.