Oleg Vladimirovich Losev

Oleg Vladimirovich Losev immortalized his name with two discoveries: he is the first in the world has shown that a semiconductor crystal can amplify and generate high-frequency radio signals, he opened the electroluminescence of semiconductors, ie. emission of light during the flow of electrical current.

About. V. Losev born on 10 May 1903. in Tver in the family office employee. At an early age he had been willing to physics and engineering. During the First World War the city was built military radio receiving station that receives a message from Russia's allies in the Entente and sent them to the telegraph in Petrograd and Moscow. One day in 1917. student Oleg was able to visit a public lecture at the head of the radio station of "wireless telegraphy". Then this term is considered to be more understandable than "radio", and at the same time - more research. Recall that the Nobel Prize 1909. was awarded to Mr.. Marconi and K. F. Brown "for his contribution to the establishment of wireless telegraphy". (Inventor of radio, our compatriot A. S. Popov had already three years as the deceased). After this lecture on the fate of. V. Losev decided. He was often to be at the radio station, all they had made friends, fell in love with radio equipment.

. When the radio station due to the enthusiasm of employees formed "freelance" vacuum laboratory, which started the development of tubes under the direction of M
. A. Bonch-Bruevich, future professors and maitre electronics, and in that time, an energetic and highly educated officer electrical. At the station often came from Moscow, a professor in. K. Lebedinsky, a renowned expert in the field of natural sciences, their talented advocate and popularizer. Experienced teacher immediately saw and began calling Loseva encouraged his curiosity.

. It was in 1918, . country has swept the Civil War, . but the new government had the foresight and political will, . to accelerate the development of radio engineering: subordinate People's Commissariat of Posts and Telegraphs (predecessor to the Ministry of Communications) was established Nizhny Novgorod Radio Laboratory (NRL),
. Her skeleton was tverskaya group headed by M. A. Bonch-Bruevich. As she moved lower in August 1918. and finalized by November first, which the country began to mass-produce, receiving and amplifying lamp OL-1 ( "hollow relay, the first"). Other work was headed by a professor who had come from Petrograd in. P. Vologdin, creator of high frequency machine. V. K. Lebedinskii began production of two special magazines on the radio: serious - "Telegraphy and telephony without wires" (TiTbp) and popular - "Radio Technician". In fact, ADR has become the first country in the Research Institute of Radio Engineering and Electronics.

After leaving school in 1920,. and unsuccessful experiences in the Moscow Institute of receipt of the O. V. Losev predictably found in ADRs under the command in. K. Lebedinsky. For him, started exciting new life in which "25 hours a day" were given to favorite radio technology. He spent the night in a laboratory building on the landing in front of the attic - in the city on the Volga, he had no family, no room, no life. But O. V. Losev was ready to sacrifice everything, only not to give up art. After binding for laboratory work, he began to engage in self-experimenting with crystal detectors. This choice was not accidental. The fact is that dealing with the major scientists and much learning from them, Oleg life remained a pronounced individualist. He loved and was able to work alone, and head and hands. Go on electron tubes "meant to get a limited area of work, a piece of. And with crystal detectors, each ham actually conducted an independent study, when the contact was moving the needle on the surface of the crystal, found the point, the most sensitive for the reception of radio signals. The importance of research and improvement of the detectors is beyond doubt. Since A. S. Popov and K. F. Brown, these "flimsy" devices with quivering needles were the main elements of the input circuits of radios, but had a low sensitivity and selectivity and is very unstable.

. The possibilities for experimentation are endless, only me but the material needle crystals
. Main - goal. And it turned out that the lack of knowledge does not always want - often because of this, and there are open, would have been lucky. Getting to the study,. V. Losev proceeded from a fundamentally mistaken assumption that because "some contacts ... between the metal and crystal does not obey Ohm's law, it is likely that in the oscillatory circuit connected to this contact, there may be continuous waves ". (At that time it was already known, . that for self-excitation of only one nonlinear current-voltage characteristics is not enough; obligatory falling part - yes Losev did not know it) is amazing, . but some crystals he had found the desired active points, . ensure the generation of high-frequency signals,
. Especially effective are a pair of "zinc - the coal cutting edge", which at voltages less than 10 V allowed to receive radio signals with a wavelength of up to 68 m. Clearly, knocking generation, it was possible to implement and amplifying mode. Article About. V. Losev of detector-generator and the detector-amplifier appeared in TiTbp in June 1922. To its credit, Losev, we note that in it he explains the obligatory presence of the falling segment of the current-voltage characteristics of the contact. Clarifies in great detail, considering and qualitatively and analytically. From the tone feels that explains not only the reader, but above all to himself. This is typical of his subsequent articles. In them he always not only a researcher, but also the diligent student of self-education courses. It is remarkable that close to Losev was in. K. Lebedinskii, which clearly than his young colleague, I realized that was discovered. Professor skhodu tried to explain the observed phenomenon, and he took up the discoverer, but nothing good basic science of that time they could not tell. In the end, Losev satisfied only conjecture: if a sufficiently large current in the contact zone there is a certain level, like e-voltaic arc, but without the heating. This discharge and short-circuits the high contact resistance, ensuring the generation. It seems that until the end of 1920. he felt that the process takes place in the atmosphere above the surface of the crystal. (According to modern concepts, there has been a combination of avalanche breakdown of a thyristor effect.)

Course in. K. Lebedinskii and M. A. Bonch-drew attention to the irreproducibility effect, and the fact, . what, . With a little work, . Detectors generators "sour", . therefore, about any competition from the electronic tube as the general direction could be no question, . but the practical importance of the opening was huge.,

. In those years, Amateur Radio has begun to take massive
. Government issued a decree about his development, called the "Law on Freedom of the ether". Electron tubes lacked, . and they were expensive, . Yes they still needed and a special power supply, . a scheme Losev could operate from three or four batteries to the torch! In a series of subsequent articles Oleg described a method of rapid finding the active points on the surface tsinkita, . replaced coal sharp metal needle, . gave recipes for processing the crystals themselves and, . course, . suggested a number of practical schemes for radio,
. And all these technical solutions has received patents (total 7), starting with "crystal set-LO", claimed in December 1923. Someone came up with a resounding and well-founded this title, completely solid-state receiver - kristadin formed from the combination of crystal + oscillator. Very soon, using the detectors, generators, radio fans began to make and radios suitable for communications over several kilometers. It was a real triumph, brochures about kristadine dispersed mass circulation, and when they are translated into English and German, The. V. Losev widely recognized European. The letters "out" it was called none other than the professor, and in his NRL career success: the original post of "minister" (a kind of errand boy), he stepped into the lab, married (unsuccessfully), and almost stopped the hunger strike.

. In 1928, Mr.
. to enhance scientific and industrial base to address Government radiodela subjects ADRs (together with the staff) was transferred to the Leningrad Central Radio Laboratory (TSRL), . which, . in turn, . continually reorganized, . built, . was equipped with,
. The signs have changed, and Losev worked the same - semiconductors. His head was Professor B. A. Ostroumov, head of the vacuum-physics laboratory, located in one of the new buildings TSRL at Stone Island. Only after the TSRL transformed into the Institute of broadcast reception and acoustics (IRPA), and the subject of sharply narrowed, Losev was forced to resign in the physics department of the First Medical Institute.

In TSRL worked outstanding scientists. Besides those who moved from the NRL, will be called L. I. M., H. D. Papaleksi, A. A. Raspletina A. N. Shchukin, D. A. Rozhansky, A. A. Pistolkors IN. I. Siforova. Many of them are academicians and corresponding members of the Academy of Sciences.

The closest counterpart. V. Losev still with the Nizhny Novgorod period was D. E. Malyarov, famous for his invention (with H. F. Alekseev) in 1939. a multiple magnetron - the basis for future radar. Losev and cross paths with the Moscow student interns. A. Kotelnikov (a future academician).

About this concentration of luminaries of Radio Engineering and Electronics, it was difficult to even dream of! But in Leningrad during the life of the interests of Oleg Vladimirovich has been far from kristadina, and from the practical Radioengineering. Even during the early studies of detectors in 1923. He noticed that when a current is passed, some of which emit light. Especially brightly shining carborundum detectors. In Leningrad Losev and began to study and explanation of the electroluminescence, largely in collaboration and support of Physico-Technical Institute, headed by academician A. F. Joffe. This page is about the scientific life. V. Losev, dedicated to solid state physics, was even more vivid than the invention kristadina, and merits a detailed description. Here note only that for the study of luminescence Losev in 1938. without the protection of the dissertation was awarded the degree of candidate of physical and mathematical sciences (and in fact he had not received higher education).

About. V. Losev fully appreciated the practical significance of his discovery, allows to create small-sized non-vacuum light sources with very low voltage (less than 10 V) and very high speed. He obtained two certificates of authorship to "The light switch" (first announced in February 1927) to formalize the priority for our country in the field of LEDs.

. When the Great Patriotic War, Losev not gone to the evacuation, as soon realized the futility of the victim, bitterly regretted
. Complete dedication Institutional Affairs, the onset of cold and hunger had done their job: January 22, 1942. on the 39th year of life, Oleg Vladimirovich Losev died of starvation in the besieged Leningrad. A month later, there is hunger died and his friend-odnogodok D. E. Painters.

About Discovery. V. Losev far ahead of its time: if there was not enough pure material, nor the theory of semiconductors, to realize an open and achieve reproducible recurrence, and most importantly - to develop further. Unfortunately, premature opening, usually turns into a drama, not only for the author, but also for the opening - it is completely forgotten, and when, finally, comes "its time", reopened. Much of this dramatic and manifested itself in the fate of O. V. Losev, but in the main he was lucky: kristadin and glow Loseva remain in the history of technology and in human memory forever.