Discovery of III–V semiconductors: physical properties and application

This overview is devoted to the discovery, development of the technology, and investigation of III–V semiconductors performed at the Ioffe Institute, where the first steps in fabricating III–V semiconductors were taken in 1950 and investigations into their fundamental properties were begun under the leadership of two outstanding scientists–Nina Aleksandrovna Goryunova and Dmitry Nikolayevich Nasledov. Further development of these investigations is reflected in the works of followers and pupils of D.N. Nasledov, who have worked and continue to work at subsidiaries of the Ioffe Institute. The contribution of these investigations to studying heterostructures based on III–V compounds as well as to the development of semiconductor devices for electronics, optoelectronics, and photonics is considered.