Alferov, Zhores

Alferov, Zhores (Ivanovich)

(born March 15, 1930, Vitebsk, Belorussia, U.S.S.R.) Soviet physicist. He received a Ph.D. from the A.F. Ioffe Physico-Technical Institute in 1970 and became director of the institute in 1987. With a research team, he developed the first practical heterostructure electronic device in 1966 and went on to pioneer electronic components made from heterostructures, including the first heterostructure laser. His work led to great advances in communications technology. In 2000 he shared the Nobel Prize for Physics with Herbert Kroemer and Jack S. Kilby.

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Alferov, Zhores Ivanovich 

Born Mar. 15, 1930, in Vitebsk. Soviet physicist. Corresponding member of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR (1972). Member of the CPSU since 1965.

Upon graduating from the Leningrad Electrical Engineering Institute in 1952, Alferov joined the staff of the Physicotechnical Institute of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR, where he still holds a position. He was named a professor at the Leningrad Electrical Engineering Institute in 1972.

Alferov’s principal works have dealt with the study of hetero-junctions in semiconductors and with the development of hetero-junction devices. He discovered the phenomenon of “superinjection” in heterostructures and advanced a theory for the use of heterostructures in semiconductor electronics.

Alferov received the Lenin Prize in 1972 and has been awarded two orders and various medals.