Laboratory history
The laboratory’s history starts in 1967 when a sector "Physics of doped semiconductors" headed by Dr. Yuri Shmartsev (1930-1993) (pictured) has been reorganized into a lab with the same title. The scientific direction of the lab was related to semiconductor technology and research on impurity centers in germanium, А3В5compounds, and ternary semiconductors (type А2В4С52).
In 1972 Yu.V. Shmartsev defended a thesis for the degree of Doctor of Physical and Mathematical Sciences, then Prof. Shmartsev directed research in the sector of technology and physics of semiconductor heterojunctions, transport phenomena in an electron gas of reduced dimension (phenomena of localization and quantum Hall effect) as well as research aimed for development of high-speed semiconductor photodetectors.
In 1979 the sector was reorganized into a lab with the same name and the same research direction.
As Professor of State Polytechnical Institute, Yu.V. Shmartsev promoted the involvement of students in the laboratory research. Being deputy editor-in-chief of the journal "Physics and Technology of Semiconductors" since its foundation Prof. Shmartsevwas always demanding a high-level of experimental and theoretical research.
The study of the effect of isovalent doping on the properties of А3В5 semiconductors and their successful development, which began in 1980, led in 1987 to the award of the USSR State Prize to Dr. Yu.V. Shmartsev and to the researcher of the laboratory, Dr. Yu.F. Biryulin.
After the sudden death of Yu.V. Shmartsev in 1993, the laboratory was headed by his student, Doctor of Physics and Mathematics Alexander Vul.
Radical changes in Russia in the organization of academia on one hand, and the new scientific discoveries on the other - led to a change of the main scientific directions in the lab. The main research fields in the lab moved to material science, in particular to new types of carbon nanostructures: fullerenes, fullerene-polymer compositions, nanodiamonds, nanographite and graphene. Since May 1995 the laboratory has been renamed into the Laboratory of Physics for Cluster Structures.
The head of the lab. Prof. Alexander Vul and senior researcher Dr. Sergey Kozyrev were the initiators of the organization of the State Scientific Program "Fullerenes and Atomic Clusters", which operated from 1994 until 2004 as one of the main programs of the Russian Ministry of Education "Trends in Condensed Matter Physics".
In the frame of the program, the Biennial International conference "Fullerenes and Atomic Clusters" (IWFAC) has been arranging in St.Petersburg and then was renamed "Advanced Carbon Nanostructures" (ACNS, see www.acns2021.org).