| 摘要 |
PURPOSE:To reduce the propagation loss and prevent the degradation in characteristic by forming a stripe layer in an intersection part with a compound semiconductor layer where the band gap energy approximates an energy corresponding to the wavelength of the used propagated light. CONSTITUTION:A compound semiconductor where band gap energy approximates the energy corresponding to the wavelength of the used propagated light, namely, the same material as a substrate 1 is crystallized and grown on the substrate 1 to form a compound semiconductor layer 7. When light beams are made incident from an end face 4a of an optical waveguide 4, this light beams are propagated in the optical waveguide 4 and are emitted normally from the other end face 4b of the optical waveguide 4 through the intersection part consisting of the compound semiconductor layer 7 and a stripe layer 6. If a carrier is injected to the stripe layer 6 by impressing a voltage to the stripe layer 6 by an electrode omitted in the figure, the refractive index of the stripe layer 6 is reduced. The propagated light beams are totally reflected on the stripe layer 6 in the intersection part between optical waveguides 4 and 5, and the course is switched, and the light beams are propagated in the optical waveguide 5 and is emitted from its end face 5b. |
