SEMICONDUCTOR OPTICAL SWITCH

摘要

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a semiconductor optical switch which is of a simple constitution and also is capable of attaining the simplifying of and the miniaturizing of a system remarkably. SOLUTION: An integrated semiconductor optical switch having semiconductor optical waveguides and directional coupling type optical waveguides is provided with the first semiconductor optical waveguide 32 and a second semiconductor optical waveguide 33 to be parallel provided on a substrate 31, a first directional coupling type optical waveguide 34 and a second directional coupling type optical waveguide 36 with which the first and the second semiconductor optical waveguides cross and a third semiconductor optical waveguide 35 inputting an exciting pulse light 22 to a direction perpendicular to the advancing direction of a signal light to be guided to the first semiconductor optical waveguide 32 and the second semiconductor optical waveguide 33 in between the first directional coupling type optical waveguide 34 and the second directional coupling type optical waveguide 36. Then, a switching operation is made to be performed by making the exciting light 22 act on the signal light to be guided to the first semiconductor optical waveguide 32 and the second semiconductor optical waveguide 33.