A light-emitting element including a light-emitting thyristor and a Schottky barrier diode is provided. A Schottky barrier diode is formed by contacting a metal terminal to a gate layer of a three-terminal light-emitting thyristor consisting of a PNPN-structure. A self-scanning light-emitting element array may be driven at 3.0V by using such a Schottky barrier diode as a coupling diode of a diode-coupled self-scanning light-emitting element array.