A multi-wavelength light source includes a substrate, a fabry-perot laser
laminated on the substrate that is operated by driving current below a
predetermined threshold current to generate multi-wavelength light
including a plurality of peaks whose wavelengths and spacing are
identical to these of WDM channels. A semiconductor optical amplifier
(SOA) is laminated on the substrate in an arrangement such that a slant
surface of the SOA is opposed to a side surface of the fabry-perot laser,
which serves to thereby amplify the multi-wavelength light output from
the fabry-perot laser. The semiconductor optical amplifier is driven in a
gain saturation state to reduce the relative intensity of noise in the
channels of the multi-wavelength light that are simultaneously amplified.