https://doi.org/10.15407/iopt.2019.54.005

Optoelectron. Semicond. Tech. 54, 5-50 (2019)

M.M. Grigoryev, M.Yu. Kravetskii, I.M. Matiyuk, V.F. Onyshchenko, A.V. Sukach, V.V. Tetyorkin

Academician O. G. Goldman - the founder of semiconductor physics and technology in Ukraine (Review. Part I)

The main stages of the biography, as well as the scientific, teaching and organizational activity of the academician of the Ukrainian SSR Academy of Sciences, O.G. Goldman, founder and first director of the Institute of Physics, Ukrainian SSR Academy of Sciences. A systematic scientific heritage that was for a long time banned by censorship of the public circulation, which led to the suppression of the activity of A.G. Goldman. Analysis of publications by a team of researchers headed by O.G. Goldman, testifies that in 1935 a scientific school of semiconductor physics and technology was finally formed in the Ukrainian Academy of Sciences. Depth of understanding the problems in the new field of solid state physics, as well as the level and reliability of the results of experimental studies, Kyiv scientific school of acad. O.G. Goldman did not concede to that one of Leningrad headed by acad. A.F. Joffe. There was a competitive relationship between these schools, which was reflected in the discussion of academicians O.G. Goldman and A.F. Joffe at the session of the USSR Academy of Sciences in 1936.

A methodological approach to research was a significant sign of their differences. Acad. A.F. Joffe adhered to the idea of publishing the results as soon as possible, often ignoring the stage of accumulating of new knowledge about the phenomenon under study, their repetition, and influencing of other factors, which often led to erroneous conclusions. As a confirmation of the fallacy of this methodology, O.G. Goldman cited annoying mistakes in the studies of A.F. Joffe collaborators. This methodological approach has been criticized by a number of well-known scientists, including prof. L.D. Landau. The basic scientific directions in semiconductor physics and technology, laid down by acad.

O.G. Goldman in Ukraine until 1938, later revealed their priority character in the USSR. These areas include: 1) study of the electrical, optical, photoelectric properties of the semiconductor materials Cu₂O, Se, Ag₂S, Fe₂O₃, which were basic at that time, depending on the technology of their manufacture; 2) creation of its own technological base for the production of rectifying structures and photovoltaic cells based on these materials; 3) study of the nature of rectification in diode structures based on them, as well as the regularities of the photoeffect in them, depending on the light intensity and temperature; 4) studies of photoelectric conversion of solar energy by photocells, as well as stability of operation of semiconductor rectifiers and photocells. Documents that may have influenced his arrest in 1938 are given.

Keywords: Academician OG Goldman, semiconductor physics, science school