Alferov worked with a group led by Vladimir Tuchkevich, who became director of
Ioffe Institute in 1967, on planar semiconductor amplifiers for use in
radio receivers. These planar semiconductor amplifiers would be referred to as transistors in the present day. His contribution included work on
germanium diodes for use as a rectifier. In the early 1960s, Alferov organized an effort at Ioffe Institute to develop semiconductor heterostructures.
Heterojunction transistors enabled higher frequency use than their
homojunction predecessors, and this capability plays a key role in modern mobile phone and satellite communications. Alferov and colleagues worked on
GaAs and
AlAs III-V heterojunctions. A particular focus was the use of heterojunctions to create
semiconductor lasers capable of lasing at room temperature. In 1963, Alferov filed a patent application proposing double-heterostructure lasers;
Herbert Kroemer independently filed a US patent several months later. In 1966, Alferov's lab created the first lasers based on heterostructures, although they did not lase continuously. Then in 1968, Alferov and coworkers produced the first
continuous-wave semiconductor heterojunction laser operating at
room temperature. It was for this work that Alferov received the 2000
Nobel Prize in Physics together with Herbert Kroemer "for developing semiconductor heterostructures used in high-speed- and opto-electronics." Alferov had an almost messianic conception of heterostructures, writing: "Many scientists have contributed to this remarkable progress, which not only determines in large measure the future prospects of solid state physics but in a certain sense affects the future of human society as well." == Scientific administration ==