We have investigated a 1.3 m InGaAlAs/InP vertical-cavity surface-emitting laser ͑VCSEL͒ structure using angle-and temperature-dependent wavelength-modulated differential surface photovoltage spectroscopy ͑DSPS͒. The DSPS measurements as functions of incident angle and temperature have been carried out in the ranges 0°рр60°and 300 KрTр420 K, respectively. Angle-dependent reflectance ͑R͒ and surface photovoltage spectroscopy ͑SPS͒ measurements have also been performed to illustrate the superior features of the DSPS technique. The differential surface photovoltage ͑DSPV͒ and SPV spectra exhibit both the fundamental conduction to heavy-hole excitonic transition of quantum well and cavity mode ͑CM͒ plus a rich interference pattern related to the mirror stacks, whereas in the R spectra only the CM and interference features are clearly visible. The energies of the excitonic transition and CM are accurately determined from the DSPV spectra. By changing the angle of incidence in the DSPS measurements the energy positions of the CM and distributed Bragg reflector features show a blueshift while the excitonic transition remains unchanged. At a fixed incident angle, the energy positions of the excitonic feature and CM show a different rate of redshift with increasing temperature, with the latter at a much slower pace. The results demonstrate considerable potential of DSPS for the nondestructive characterization of the VCSEL structures.