A vertical cavity surface emitting laser, including an active region, an electrical contact for injecting current into the active region in order to generate photons, and an aperture between the active region and the contact for restricting current flow into the active region. The aperture is sufficiently large in at least one transverse dimension for the active region to support multiple transverse modes, and the aperture and contact are configured to produce current crowding in the active region. The direction of photon emission from the laser is determined by the injection current selectively stimulating different transverse modes.