SEMICONDUCTOR OPTICAL SWITCH AND PRODUCTION THEREFOR

摘要

PURPOSE:To provide the semiconductor optical switch which is excellent in terms of production characteristic, propagation loss and driving voltage and the process of production therefor. CONSTITUTION:Core consisting of plural multiple quantum well (MQW) layers 5 are formed by selective growth of regions on a substrate 6. The thickness of the multiple wells of the switch parts in the form of a directional coupler among the multiple wells constituting these cores is set larger than the thickness of the optical waveguide parts of the light input/output parts. A layer 103 consisting of a material having the refractive index higher than the refractive index of the substrate 6 is deposited to cover these cores and clads 104 consisting of a conductive medium having a mesa shape are provided in correspondence to the positions of the respective cores. The parts between the clads 104 of the mesa shape are burried with electrical insulating layers 108.