The control of the photonic crystal waveguide over the beam profile of vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers is investigated. The symmetric slab waveguide model is adopted to analyze the control parameters of the beam profile in the photonic-crystal vertical-cavity surface-emitting laser （PC-VCSEL）. The filling factor （the ratio of the hole diameter to the lattice constant） and the etching depth control the divergence angle of the PC-VCSEL, and the low filling factor and the shallow etching depth are beneficial to achieve the low-divergence-angle beam. Two types of PC-VCSELs with different filling factors and etching depths are designed and fabricated. The experimental results show that the device with a lower filling factor and a shallower etching depth has a lower divergence angle, which agrees well with the theoretical predictions.