We have successfully used low-pressure metal-organic chemical vapor deposition (LP-MOCVD) to grow GaAs/A1GaAs vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers containing graded-index distributed Bragg reflector (DBR) mirrors. The continuously-graded mirror heterojunctions were obtained by maintaining a constant growth temperature while ramping the reactant gas flows. Graded interfaces were found to reduce the energy-band discontinuities, resulting in improved electrical charteristics. A 35 p.m diameter device has a series resistance of 22 , a CW output power of 2 mW, a threshold current density of 1.2 kA/cm2, an overall power efficiency of 3.0%, and a turn-on voltage of 2.3 V.