Semiconductor lasers with blue beams are typically based on gallium(III) nitride (GaN violet color) or indium gallium nitride (often true blue in color, but also able to produce other colors).

These systems are mostly fabricated from silicon (Si), silicon nitride (Si3N4), or polymers.

Today, blue lasers use a sapphire surface covered with a layer of gallium nitride (this technology is used by Japanese company Nichia, which has an agreement with Sony), and blue semiconductor lasers use a gallium nitride mono crystal surface (Polish company TopGaN).

There is one more Polish high tech company which creates gallium nitride crystal Ammono, but this company does not produce blue lasers.

The active layer of the Nichia devices was formed from InGaN quantum wells or quantum dots spontaneously formed via self assembly.