Single‐mode and single‐beam emission have been achieved from surface emitting laser diodes based on the surface‐mode‐emission technique. By employing an optimized device design and a first‐order grating coupler, the laser diodes show under pulsed operation condition a single‐mode emission with a linewidth of 0.11 nm. A power up to 3.6 mW is emitted into a single, surface‐emitted beam, which has a beam divergence of 0.20°. ©1996 American Institute of Physics.