Antireflective vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers (AR-VCSELs) offer a solution to the challenge of achieving low divergence in automotive LiDARs. Traditional extended cavity designs face difficulties in achieving a divergence of less than 16° (D86) due to multiple-longitudinal-mode lasing. AR-VCSELs introduce an antireflective light reservoir, where the electric field intensity is significantly higher than the gain region, reducing the required cavity length for minimal divergence and preserving single-longitudinal-mode lasing. A 6-junction AR-VCSEL array demonstrates a halved divergence and tripled brightness compared to conventional counterparts. Various designs achieve a divergence range of 8° to 16° (D86). A 7 µm AR-VCSEL emitter achieves 28.4 mW in single transverse mode lasing. AR-VCSELs provide a well-balanced power density and brightness, making them cost-effective for long-distance LiDARs. The antireflective cavity concept may inspire diverse applications in photonic devices beyond LiDARs. VCSELs are compact, fast, and efficient, making them a major light source for high-speed data communication and sensing. They are widely used in applications such as face identification, infrared illumination, time of flight (ToF) approximation, and 3D sensing. VCSELs are expanding to autonomous driving, computing, virtual and augmented reality, and industrial fast heating. LiDAR systems with VCSEL array solid-state light sources are commercialized in autonomous-driving vehicles. Performance metrics for high-resolution LiDAR light sources include power, power density, divergence angle, beam quality, beam parameter product, spectral width, brightness, spectral brightness, wavelength, temperature stability, pulse width, energy conversion efficiency, on-off speed, module size, and power per active area. Brightness and spectral brightness are critical for scanning LiDAR systems using collimated laser beams. Spectral brightness is important for evaluating a laser source's capability to enable a high signal-to-noise ratio. For array-type laser sources, brightness is defined as power per unit emission area and solid-angle. The brightness and spectral brightness can only deteriorate or be preserved in an ideal lens system. Reducing the etendue of the original laser beam is critical to achieving high brightness and spectral brightness for distant objects. There is an ongoing competition between edge-emitting lasers (EELs) and VCSELs for commercial LiDAR. EELs have higher power but VCSELs have a narrower spectral width and better wavelength stability. VCSELs can produce superior light beams with circular symmetry, whereas EELs have elliptic beam profiles. VCSELs have an advantage in two-dimensional (2D) point cloud generation and chip-scale optical integration. Multijunction structures can increase VCSEL power density. Tandem or multijunction structuresAntireflective vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers (AR-VCSELs) offer a solution to the challenge of achieving low divergence in automotive LiDARs. Traditional extended cavity designs face difficulties in achieving a divergence of less than 16° (D86) due to multiple-longitudinal-mode lasing. AR-VCSELs introduce an antireflective light reservoir, where the electric field intensity is significantly higher than the gain region, reducing the required cavity length for minimal divergence and preserving single-longitudinal-mode lasing. A 6-junction AR-VCSEL array demonstrates a halved divergence and tripled brightness compared to conventional counterparts. Various designs achieve a divergence range of 8° to 16° (D86). A 7 µm AR-VCSEL emitter achieves 28.4 mW in single transverse mode lasing. AR-VCSELs provide a well-balanced power density and brightness, making them cost-effective for long-distance LiDARs. The antireflective cavity concept may inspire diverse applications in photonic devices beyond LiDARs. VCSELs are compact, fast, and efficient, making them a major light source for high-speed data communication and sensing. They are widely used in applications such as face identification, infrared illumination, time of flight (ToF) approximation, and 3D sensing. VCSELs are expanding to autonomous driving, computing, virtual and augmented reality, and industrial fast heating. LiDAR systems with VCSEL array solid-state light sources are commercialized in autonomous-driving vehicles. Performance metrics for high-resolution LiDAR light sources include power, power density, divergence angle, beam quality, beam parameter product, spectral width, brightness, spectral brightness, wavelength, temperature stability, pulse width, energy conversion efficiency, on-off speed, module size, and power per active area. Brightness and spectral brightness are critical for scanning LiDAR systems using collimated laser beams. Spectral brightness is important for evaluating a laser source's capability to enable a high signal-to-noise ratio. For array-type laser sources, brightness is defined as power per unit emission area and solid-angle. The brightness and spectral brightness can only deteriorate or be preserved in an ideal lens system. Reducing the etendue of the original laser beam is critical to achieving high brightness and spectral brightness for distant objects. There is an ongoing competition between edge-emitting lasers (EELs) and VCSELs for commercial LiDAR. EELs have higher power but VCSELs have a narrower spectral width and better wavelength stability. VCSELs can produce superior light beams with circular symmetry, whereas EELs have elliptic beam profiles. VCSELs have an advantage in two-dimensional (2D) point cloud generation and chip-scale optical integration. Multijunction structures can increase VCSEL power density. Tandem or multijunction structures