A novel GaAs-AlGaAs vertical-cavity surface-emitting laser (VCSEL) design based on the coupled cavities and all-epitaxial non-transparent filter section (F-VCSEL) was proposed. The key point of this approach is that the absorption filter selectively provides the high losses for off-resonance optical modes and relatively narrow transparency window (similar to 1.3 nm). The broad area (100 mu m x 500 mu m) F-VCSEL devices with a metal contact grid on the top demonstrate the 0.85 mu m range narrow line emission and the Gaussian-like far-field patterns, which confirm the possibility of the achievement of the surface-emitting lasing by using the all-epitaxial wavelength-selective filter concept. Single-mode operation in wide pump current range in F-VCSEL was achieved at the larger oxide current aperture Q Pin) as compared with that for the conventional oxide-confined VCSEL (1 mu m). (c) 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.