About us

The Sector of Theory of Optical and Electrical Phenomena in Semiconductors was established at the Ioffe Institute in 1981 by the distinguished physicist Vladimir Perel.

Our research continues a long tradition of excellence in theoretical physics. While our primary focus remains the fundamental properties of semiconductors, our scientific interests span the full spectrum of solid-state physics, with significant contributions to atomic physics and plasma physics.

The Sector has been home to some of the most influential scientists in the field. Its faculty has included Irina Yassievich, Michel Dyakonov, Alexei Efros and Boris Shklovskii, while its alumni include Dmitrij Polyakov, Alexander Khaetskii and Alexander Furman.

A cornerstone of the Sector's intellectual life is its weekly theoretical seminar, founded in 1982 by Michel Dyakonov. Each session opens with an informal tea — a tradition so enduring that the meeting is known throughout the scientific community simply as the Tea Seminar. Four decades on, it remains the oldest active seminar in condensed-matter physics at the Ioffe Institute.