Microcavity lasers with differing mirror designs are used to study the influence of the index contrast ratio on the mode size and temporal response. The experimental results demonstrate the advantages of high contrast Bragg reflectors for reducing the mode area while simultaneously increasing the laser temporal response. We suggest that the far‐field angle is preferable to an effective cavity length as a characterization parameter, since the far‐field angle is directly measurable and yields the photon lifetime. ©1995 American Institute of Physics.