Oleg Losev

Oleg Losev
Олег Лосев
Born10 May 1903
Tver, Tver Governorate, Russian Empire
Died22 January 1942 (1942-01-23) (aged 38)
Leningrad, Russian SFSR, Soviet Union
Occupation(s)physicist, inventor
Known forInventions, radio, LEDs
Scientific career
FieldsPhysics, electrical engineering
InstitutionsNizhniy-Novgorod Radio Laboratory (NRL), Central Radio Laboratory (TSRL, Leningrad), Leningrad Physicotechnical Institute, First Leningrad Medical Institute
Employees of the Central Radio Laboratory, Leningrad, 1930. Losev is in fourth row, third from left.

Oleg Vladimirovich Losev (sometimes spelled Lossev or Lossew in English; Russian: Оле́г Влади́мирович Ло́сев; 10 May 1903 – 22 January 1942) was a Russian and Soviet scientist and inventor[1] who made significant discoveries in the field of semiconductor junctions and the light emitting diode (LED).

Although he was never able to complete formal education and never held a research position, Losev conducted some of the earliest research into semiconductors, publishing 43 papers and receiving 16 "author's certificates" (the Soviet version of patents) for his discoveries.[2][3][4] He observed light emission from carborundum point-contact junctions, constructing a light-emitting diode (LED), did the first research on them, proposed the first correct theory of how they worked, and used them in practical applications such as electroluminescence.[3][4][5] He explored negative resistance in semiconductor junctions, and was first to use them practically for amplification, building the first solid-state amplifiers, electronic oscillators, and superheterodyne radio receivers, 25 years before the invention of the transistor.[4][5] However his achievements were overlooked, and languished unknown for half a century before being recognized in the late 20th and early 21st century.

  1. ^ Новиков, M. A. (2004). Олег Владимирович Лосев – пионер полупроводниковой электроники [Oleg Vladimirovich Losev – Pioneer of Semiconductor Electronics] (PDF). Физика Твердого Тела [Solid State Physics] (in Russian). 46 (1): 5–9. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2007-09-28. Retrieved 2008-01-01. An English translation M. A. Novikov (January 2004) "Oleg Vladimirovich Losev: Pioneer of Semiconductor Electronics," Physics of the Solid State, vol. 46, no. 1, page 1-4 is on the Springer archive
  2. ^ Graham, Loren (2013). Lonely Ideas: Can Russia Compete?. MIT Press. pp. 62–63. ISBN 978-0262019798.
  3. ^ a b Zheludev, Nikolay (April 2007). "The life and times of the LED – a 100-year history" (PDF). Nature Photonics. 1 (4): 189–192. Bibcode:2007NaPho...1..189Z. doi:10.1038/nphoton.2007.34. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2017-03-31. Retrieved 2007-04-11.
  4. ^ a b c Ben-Menahem, Ari (2009). Historical Encyclopedia of Natural and Mathematical Sciences, Vol. 1. Springer. p. 3588. ISBN 978-3540688310.
  5. ^ a b Lee, Thomas H. (2004). The Design of CMOS Radio-Frequency Integrated Circuits, 2nd Ed. UK: Cambridge University Press. p. 20. ISBN 978-0521835398.