The invention provides an optical switch including a substrate which has
conductivity or semiconductivity, an optical waveguide layer which is
formed on the substrate, and a control electrode which is formed on the
optical waveguide layer. The optical waveguide layer includes an
incident-side channel waveguide to which a light signal is incident and
plural outgoing-side channel waveguides branched from the incident-side
channel waveguide. The control electrode forms a reflection plane
reflecting the incident light signal near a crossover portion of the
plural outgoing-side channel waveguides by applying voltage to the
optical waveguide layer with the substrate to control a refractive index
of the optical waveguide layer, and switches propagation paths of the
light signal.