Light emission normal to the surface of a GaAs/AlGaAs wafer has been obtained by fabricating edge‐emitting double‐heterostructure diode lasers with a monolithic 45° deflector adjacent to one of the laser facets. The deflector and adjacent facet were formed by ion beam assisted etching, while the other facet was cleaved. Diode laser/deflector devices with two etched laser facets could be used to fabricate monolithic two‐dimensional laser arrays.