A semiconductor optical pulse compression waveguide with a novel structure that can greatly reduce its size, and be simply fabricated. The semiconductor optical pulse compression waveguide is composed of a semiconductor optical waveguide which guides an optical signal and includes an optical pulse compression region. The optical pulse compression region includes at least one saturable amplifier region that loses its amplification characteristic after amplifying a fixed amount of optical energy, and at least one saturable absorber region that loses its absorption characteristic after absorbing a fixed amount of optical energy, where the saturable amplifier region and the saturable absorber region are disposed alternately in series in the optical pulse compression region.