Abstract: A solar battery module comprising: a plurality of solar battery cells each including a crystalline semiconductor substrate; and a wiring member that connects the solar battery cells to one another, wherein the wiring member contains a first substance having a linear expansion coefficient closer to that of the substrate constituting each of the solar battery cells than Cu.

Abstract: In an external modulator for optical communication, a piezoelectric element section is formed by laminating a lower electrode, a piezoelectric thin film and an upper electrode in this order on one surface of a substantially flat substrate which has substantially the same acoustic impedance as the clad layer of a single mode optical fiber to be disposed on the substrate. At least one single mode optical fiber is disposed on the other surface of the substrate on the upper electrode, and the single mode optical fiber is at least partly coated with a material having an acoustic impedance substantially equal to that of the clad layer in a place in which the single mode optical fiber is disposed.

Abstract: There is provided a method for modulating the polarization of light that allows detection of any modulated output regardless if the optical analyzers are rigidly held in place. According to a first aspect of the invention, a method for receiving light with a modulated polarization comprises steps of dividing the light being propagated through an optical fiber 1 with a polarization modulated in accordance with a modulation signal into three branched beams, causing one of the branched beams of light with a modulated polarization to pass through a .pi./2 phase corrector 2 and a first optical analyzer 3a and causing the remaining branched beams of light to respectively pass through second and third optical analyzers 3b and 3c without passing through any .pi./2 phase correctors before in order to receive light with a modualted intensity from the optical analyzers 3a, 3b and 3c.

Abstract: There is provided an optical external modulator that can modulate the polarization of incident light without regulating the state of polarization of the light entering the modulator. Such a modulator can be suitably incorporated into an optical telecommunications system. An optical external modulator according to the invention comprises a substrate 1, an optical transmission line 7, a polarization modulating section 11 and a phase changing section 8 for changing the state of polarization of the light passing through the optical transmission line by applying stress to the optical transmission line 7 as a function of a modulation signal given to the modulator such that the phase difference between the X-component and the Y-component of the light being propagated through the optical transmission line 7 is shifted by (2m-1)*.pi./2 (m is a positive integer).