Vertical-cavity surface-emitting laser (VCSEL) structures have been grown on GaAs (311)B substrates by metalorganic chemical vapor deposition. C-doped GaAs and AlAs layers with smooth surface morphology and a hole concentration of1018 cm−3were obtained by optimizing the growth conditions; these conditions contributed to high-qualityp-type distributed Bragg reflectors (DBRs). The devices on the (311)B substrates exhibited a threshold current of 9.6 mA, voltage of 2.1 V, and maximum power of 4.1 mW at a 20 &mgr;m &fgr; size; these characteristics are similar to those obtained on (100) substrates. The polarization was aligned to [2¯33¯]. ©1997 American Institute of Physics.