Alferov, Zhores Ivanovich, << ahl FYOH rawf, ZHAWR ehs ih VAH nuh vihch >> (1930-2019), was a Russian physicist. He won a share of the 2000 Nobel Prize in physics for his work on certain kinds of electronic devices. Alferov shared the prize with the German-born American physicist Herbert Kroemer and the American electrical engineer Jack S. Kilby.
Alferov’s prizewinning work involved the use of semiconductor heterostructures in electronic devices. These structures consist of two or more thin layers of different semiconductors. A semiconductor is a material that conducts (carries) electric current better than does an insulator, such as wood or glass, but not as well as a conductor, such as silver or copper. In an electronic device, all the layers of a semiconductor heterostructure act together to perform a single function, such as controlling the flow of electric current.
Commonly used heterostructure materials include gallium arsenide and aluminum gallium arsenide. However, the most commonly used semiconductor, silicon, is seldom used in heterostructures. Most computer chips contain transistors (electronic switches) that use silicon.
Heterotransistors (transistors that use semiconductor heterostructures) can operate much faster than ordinary transistors. In addition, amplifiers equipped with heterotransistors create relatively little noise. High-speed, low-noise amplifiers that employ heterotransistors have proved useful in many applications, including mobile telephones and satellite communications devices.
In 1963, Alferov and Kroemer, working independently of each other, suggested how semiconductor heterostructures could be used in lasers. A research team led by Alferov then rapidly developed many types of components made of heterostructures. In 1970, the group announced the creation of a heterostructure laser that could create a continuous beam of light at room temperature.
Lasers containing semiconductor heterostructures send out pulses of light that carry messages through optical fibers in modern telephone systems. Compact-disc players and bar-code readers also use such lasers.
Alferov was born on March 15, 1930, in Vitebsk, in what is now Belarus but was then part of the Soviet Union. In 1952, he graduated from the Lenin Electrotechnical Institute (now St. Petersburg Electrotechnical University) in Leningrad, Soviet Union (now St. Petersburg, Russia). He then went to work for the A. F. Ioffe Physico-Technical Institute in that city. He later received a doctor of science degree in physics and mathematics from the Ioffe Institute and directed the institute since 1987. Since 1991, he was vice president of the Russian Academy of Sciences. He produced more than 50 inventions in semiconductor technology.
Alferov also became active in politics, chiefly to urge more government support for scientific research. He was elected to Russia’s Federal Assembly in 1995. He died on March 1, 2019.
