DOI: 

Optoelektron. napìvprovìd. teh. 61, 7-16 (2026)


P.S. Smertenko 


OPTOELECTRONIC HERITAGE OF S.V.SVECHNIKOV – TO THE BIRTH CENTENARY


On July 21, 2026, the scientific community has celebrated the centennial of the birth of Sergei Vasilyevich Svechnikov, an electronic physicist, the “father of optoelectronics” in Ukraine and the Soviet Union, educator, scientific organizer and simply a open-minded person (07/21/1926 – 04/13/2017). We believe that the significance and influence of S.V. Svechnikov on the further development of physics and electronics, particularly semiconductor physics and engineering in Ukraine, have not been sufficiently revealed. This article aims to explore Sergei Vasilievich’s scientific activities from the perspective of the scientific field of optoelectronics. Sergei Vasilyevich began his scientific career at the Kyiv Polytechnic Institute (now the National Technical University of Ukraine "Igor Sikorsky Kyiv Polytechnic Institute") and then he expanded his scientific potential at the Institute of Semiconductors of the Academy of Sciences of the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic (now the V. Lashkaryov Institute of Semiconductor Physics of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine), established in 1960. As an engineer trained in radio electronics, Sergei Vasilievich created the first photocoupler in Ukraine and the Soviet Union in the early 1950s: an X-ray emitter—a cadmium-sulfide sensitive element. In fact, this initiated a new scientific discipline, optoelectronics, the banner of which S.V. Svechnikov carried throughout his life. The following are just a few of the areas developed under the leadership of Academician Sergei Vasilievich Svechnikov: (i) the theory and applications of optoelectronic devices and systems; (ii) injection and generation-recombination processes, as well as electron transport in semiconductors and semiconductor structures; (iii) fabrication technologies and characterization of photosensitive and light-emitting devices; (iv) the effects of electro-magnetic radiation on semiconductors. This article provides examples of monographs and papers by students and followers of the Svechnikov scientific school. They not only laid the initial foundations of this scientific field, but also stimulated the modern development of optoelectronics.

 

Keywords: optoelectronics; optocoupler; semiconductor physics; S.V. Svechnikov; optoelectronics scientific school; V. Lashkaryov Institute of Semiconductor Physics of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine.