Zhores was a Soviet and Russian physicist, politician academician. He was a winner of the Nobel Prize in Physics, vice-president of the Russian Academy of Sciences, chairman of the Presidium of the Saint Petersburg Scientific Center of the Russian Academy of Sciences, academician of the USSR Academy of Sciences, honored Power Engineer of the Russian Federation.
Background
Zh. Alferov was born on 15 March in 1930, in Vitebsk, Belarus into the family of Ivan Karpovich and Anna Vladimirovna Alferov, who was born and grew up in Belarus. His father participated in the October Revolution, commanded a cavalry regiment during the Civil War, then studied at the Academy of Industry and became one of the founders and administrators of pulp and paper industry of the former USSR.
Education
Zhores Alferov received his secondary education in Minsk, Belarus in secondary school No 42 which he finished with distinction (a gold medal) in 1947. His interest in natural sciences, primarily in physics, was encouraged by his school teacher of physics Y.B. Melterson. He also studied at Belorussian Polytechnic Institute (now the Belarusian National Technical University) on the energetic faculty in Minsk, Belarus. Thorough training in physics and mathematics received in Belarus allowed him to enter the Leningrad Electrotechnical Institute (nowadays Saint Petersburg Electrotechnical University) and graduate from it with distinction in 1952.
From 1953 Zhores worked at the Ioffe Physics and Technology Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences (from 1973 as a head of a laboratory, from 1987— as its director). In 1972 he was also a professor at the chairs formed on his initiative – that of optoelectronics at the Leningrad Electrotechnical Institute (now the Saint Petersburg Electrotechnical University) and at the Leningrad Polytechnic Institute. From 1988 he was the dean of physics and engineering faculty, organized by him at the Leningrad Polytechnic Institute. From 1989 he was the chairman of the St.Petersburg Scientific Centre of the Russian Academy of Sciences and in 1990 he was elected the Vice-President of the Russian Academy of Sciences. In 1972 Zh. Alferov became a corresponding member of the USSR Academy of Science and in 1979 – its full member (from 1991 – an academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences), in 1995 he became a foreign member of the National Academy of Sciences of Belarus.
Zh. Alferov was conducting his research in semiconductor physics, semiconductor and quantum electronics, and technical physics. He participated actively in the development of first domestic transistors, photodiodes, powerful germanium rectifiers. He discovered the phenomena of superinjection, electronic and optical limitations in heterostructures and proved the possibility to change radically the control of electronic and light beams in semiconductor heterostructures. This allowed to improve fundamentally the parameters of the majority of the known semiconductor devices and to create their radically new types to be used in optical and quantum electronics.
When a student, he conducted his first research on photoconductivity of bismuth telluride. Already in that work, he revealed the characteristic features of his future scientific activities, like the deep penetration into the physics of investigated processes and the brilliant ability to use the obtained results for developing new devices and for addressing specific physical, theoretical and industrial problems. The research in this direction was summarized in his candidate dissertation, which was defended successfully in 1959.
In 1967, Alferov and his colleagues developed heterostructures, which were close in their properties to the ideal model of a semiconductor laser, and then the first semi-conductor heterolaser was made, which could function non-stop at room temperature. In the early 1970s, he formulated the principles of the «ideal» junction in semiconductors in multicomponent compositions and soon after that developed lasers on their basis, which allowed to widen greatly the range of radiation both to infrared and the visible areas. Such lasers found their application as the sources of radiation in fiber-optical lines of long-distance communication. Zh. Alferov summarized the research results on heterojunctions in semi-conductors in his doctoral dissertation, defended successfully in 1970.
In 1970, Alferov and his followers created the first highly productive photovoltaic converters of concentrated solar radiation. They served as the background for a completely new level of research in the field of solar energy. The results of fundamental works by Zh. Alferov formed the basis for new scientific and technical trends like, for example, the production of solar cells for outer space batteries (one of those was installed in the basic module of the Mir outer-space station in 1986 and was functioning in the orbit during the whole period of operation without any noticeable power lowering).
From 1983 the priority direction of his research was the synthesis and research of nanostructures of smaller dimensions (quantum threads and quantum points). In 1993–1994 Alferov and his followers were the first to produce a heterolaser based on structures with quantum points – «man-made atoms», which are semi-conductor clusters of nanometric scale, «sealed up» (inserted) into the matrix of another semi-conductor. The power range of such formations, comprising several thousand atoms is analogous to the range of a single atom. Lasers, based on such structures are characterized by extremely high-temperature stability and by threshold current which an order lower as compared to other lasers. Those Alferov’s researches lay the foundation for fundamentally new electronics based on heterostructures with a wide scope of usage, known today as ‘zone engineering’.
In 2002, Zhores initiated the establishment of the Global Energy International Prize and headed the award committee. He left this post after he was awarded the prize in 2005. In 2013 and 2017, Zhores Alferov was nominated for the presidency of the Russian Academy of Sciences, but both times he failed to head the Academy of Sciences.
Also, Zhores was the editor-in-chief of the journal Pisma v Zhurnal Tekhnicheskoi Fiziki (Technical Physics Letters), and a member of the Editorial Board of the Journal Fizika i Tekhnika Poluprovodnikov (Physics and Semi-conductor Technology.
Achievements
Religion
Alferov was an atheist and expressed objections to religious education.
Politics
As many prominent scientists, over the years, Zhores Alferov increasingly moved away from research into organizational and social activities. In 1944 Zhores was a member of the Komsomol. In 1965 he became a member of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. He began to actively engage in social activities and politics during perestroika, becoming in 1989 elected a deputy to the Supreme Soviet of the USSR Academy of Sciences. Zhores was elected to the Russian Parliament, the State Duma, in 1995 as a deputy for the political party Our Home is Russia, generally considered to be supportive of the policies of President Boris Yeltsin. In four years Zhores was elected again, this time on the list of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation.
Alferov was re-elected in 2003 and again in 2007, when he was placed second on the party's federal electoral list behind Gennady Zyuganov and ahead of Nikolai Kharitonov, even though he was not a member of the party. He was one of the signers of the Open letter to President Vladimir V. Putin from the Members of the Russian Academy of Sciences against serialization of Russia.
From 2007 to 2011 Zhores was a Deputy of the 5th convocation of the State Duma of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation from the Communist Party of the Russian Federation, member of the Communist Party faction, member of the State Duma Committee on Science and High Technologies. He was the oldest deputy of the State Duma of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation of the 5th convocation. With the leadership of the Communist Party, Zhores Alferov disagreed on one point-regarding religion and the church. In 2007, he signed the well-known “letter of 10 academicians” to President Putin against “creeping clericalization of society.” Among the co-authors was another well-known at the time Russian Nobel Prize in Physics, Vitaly Ginzburg, who held on to liberal views. Alferov did not make sharp anti-Western attacks and spoke in favor of continuing contacts with American, European and Ukrainian scientists, stressing that "science is always international."
In the media, he was called one of the main opponents of the reform of the Russian Academy of Sciences which began in 2013, initiated by Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev and then Minister of Education and Science Dmitry Livanov. Alferov publicly called the post-Soviet reforms "foolish", "nightmare" and "deadlock", extolled the "achievements of the USSR", complained about the social stratification of society and even went on street demonstrations, but showed restraint in relation to Vladimir Putin.
From 2016 to 2019 Alferov was a member of the 7th convocation of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation State Duma. Also, he was the oldest deputy of the State Duma of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation of the 7th convocation. In 2016 he became a member of the State Duma Committee on CIS Affairs, Eurasian Integration and Relations with Compatriots. He held this position until 2019.
Views
Quotations:
"If Russia is to be a great power, it will be, not because of its nuclear potential, faith in God or the president, or Western investment, but thanks to the labor of the nation, faith in knowledge and science and the maintenance and development of scientific potential and education."
“Knowledge is power, but power must be based on knowledge.”
“Our purpose was both great and bright no more the dark! Let there be light! So to release eternal light we did the work all day and night. And when we could neither work nor think we had the Russian vodka drink..."
Membership
USSR Academy of Sciences
,
USSR
1979
Russian Academy of Sciences
,
Russian Federation
1991
St. Petersburg Center of the Russian Academy of Sciences
,
Saint Petersburg
European Physics Society
Council on physics and chemistry of semiconductors of the Russian Academy of Sciences
Scientific Council of the Skolkovo Foundation
Foundation for the support of science and education
Interests
Literature
Connections
Alferov's first marriage was short, his wife was from Tbilisi. From the first marriage, Alferov left a daughter Olga, with whom he did not maintain a relationship. His second wife was Tamara Georgievna Darskaya. They met in Sochi in May 1967. Six months later they got married, and Tamara moved to her husband. Zhores had a daughter: Irina, and a son: Ivan.
In 2001 Zhores received this order for his great personal contribution to the development of physical science, the organization of the Belarusian-Russian scientific and technical cooperation, strengthening the friendship between the peoples of Belarus and Russia.
In 2001 Zhores received this order for his great personal contribution to the development of physical science, the organization of the Belarusian-Russian scientific and technical cooperation, strengthening the friendship between the peoples of Belarus and Russia.