SEMICONDUCTOR OPTICAL SWITCH

摘要

PURPOSE:To provide the semiconductor switch having a large extinction ratio and small operating light energy by improving the structure of a semiconductor element. CONSTITUTION:This semiconductor optical switch has the semiconductor element constituted with a transistor by laminating an emitter consisting of n-Al0.3Ga0.7 As 1, a base consisting of p-AlxGa1-xAs 2 and a collector consisting of an i-MQW layer 3, n-DBR 4 and n-GaAs 5 in this order or the semiconductor element constituted with a thyristor of p-GaAs in place of the n-GaAs 5 of the above-mentioned semiconductor element and controls the reading out light of a 2nd wavelength by the control light of a 1st wavelength. The transistor of the above-mentioned switch is operated by using the i-MQW layer as a light absorptive layer, by which the operating light energy is decreased. The extinction ratio is increased by acting the n-DBR as a reflection mirror for reading out light.