Memoria. On the hundredth anniversary of the birth of Corresponding Member of the Russian Academy of Sciences L. N. Kurbatov

January 15, 2013 was the hundredth anniversary of the birth of the eminent Soviet physicist, scientific director of the Scientific Research Institute (NII) of Applied Physics of the Ministry of Military Industry of the USSR, manager of the Department of Physical Electronics of the Moscow Physics and Engineering Institute (MFTI), corresponding member of the Russian Academy of Sciences (RAS), Honored Scientist of the Russian Federation, doctor of physicomathematical sciences, Professor Leonid Nikolaevich Kurbatov (1913–2004).
L. N. Kurbatov was born in Skobelev (now Fergana, Uzbekistan) in a family of Russian intellectuals. His mother, Yuliya Alekseevna, graduated from the St. Petersburg Women’s Medical Institute, and his father, Nikola Ivanovich, graduated from the Moscow Agricultural Institute.
After completing his schooling, Leonid Nikolaevich entered the Chemistry Department of the Central Asia University in Tashkent. During this time, his father was denounced for sabotage and was arrested. As the son of an enemy of the people, L. N. Kurbatov was expelled from the university. With great difficulty, his mother was able to have her son re-enrolled at the university.
After he was re-enrolled at the university, Kurbatov decided in 1932 to enter the Industrial Institute in Leningrad (St. Petersburg State Polytechnical University) in the Engineering–Physics (Physicomechanical) Department, organized in 1919 by Academician A. F. Ioffe. He successfully graduated in 1936 with a specialization in chemical physics, established in the department by Academician N. N. Semenov, and immediately afterwards enrolled as a graduate student at the Leningrad State University (LGU).
While still a student, Leonid Nikolaevich began his scientific studies in the area of photochemistry and the optics of adsorbed substances at the Physics Institute of LGU under the guidance of Academician A. N. Terenin, who remained his scientific advisor in graduate school.
In 1939, on the basis of his work on the study of fine adsorption phenomena, Kurbatov defended his candidate’s dissertation on “Spectral studies of iodine vapor” and was assigned to head the Department of Physics of the Pskov Pedagogical Institute.
There was very little possibility of performing experimental scientific work at the pedagogical institute; therefore, at the beginning of 1941, immediately after the Naval Medical Academy (VMMA) was organized in Leningrad, Leonid Nikolaevich assumed the post of docent of the academy’s physics department. During the war years, he carried out work on the saturation kinetics of blood by respiratory gases, solved the applied problem of optimizing the transformer in a device of the type of electroshock baton, and studied silica aerogel with the purpose of using it to improve the atmosphere in turrets on ships of the fleet when artillery was being fired.
In the postwar years, Leonid Nikolaevich continued his spectral studies of adsorption. The most interesting results of this period included a study of the IR spectra of the surface groups of hydroxyl that are the active centers of silicate adsorbents and catalysts, as well as a study of the dielectric properties of the adsorbed substances. Kurbatov was a pioneer in the study of aerogel cathodoluminescence, and these studies formed the basis of his doctoral dissertation, defended in 1955.
Starting in 1956, Leonid Nikolaevich worked at the S. I. Vavilov State Optical Institute (GOI). Since that time, his main scientific interests became the physics and engineering of semiconductors and, most of all, semiconductor photoelectronics and microphotoelectronics, and, starting at the beginning of the 1960s, quantum electronics.
Several research specializations can be pointed out in which L. N. Kurbatov performed extensive, fruitful work.
One such specialization was the luminescence of semiconductors. As a result of careful studies of more than thirty compounds, the stimulated radiation regime was obtained for the first time in ten of them, in the spectral region 0.3–46 μm.
Another group of projects was associated with semiconductor lasers and laser spectroscopy. Leonid Nikolaevich and his colleagues developed one of the first injection lasers based on gallium arsenide operating in the continuous regime, as well as electron-pumped lasers in the form of welded tubes, and wavelength-tunable IR lasers based on lead–tin chalcogenides.
Leonid Nikolaevich was responsible for a number of projects on the problems of the optics of layered crystals. In collaboration with his students, he studied how anisotropy affects the optical properties of layered semiconductors, experimentally investigated and evaluated the effect of excitonic polaritons on the formation of the fundamental absorption edge of such crystals, carried out a number of projects on the physics and technology of the heterojunctions of layered materials, and investigated in detail the photoelectric properties of photoheterojunctions.
Kurbatov and his colleagues carried out important work in the area of spectrochronography in semiconductors and developed methods of photoemission microscopy for high-accuracy determination of the local properties of semiconductor materials and structures based on them.
The results of Kurbatov’s work at GOI on the photoelectric properties of lead sulfide films played a substantial role in designating him deputy director for scientific work at NII Minoboronprom USSR. Leonid Nikolaevich made a noteworthy contribution to the creation and adoption of a commercial technology for fabricating lead sulfide layers for space-monitoring photodetectors. More than ten types of photodetectors and photodetector systems were developed with his direct participation. Kurbatov did much to expand the topics and specializations of activity at the institute, subsequently the NII of Applied Physics of the Ministry of Military Industry of the USSR.
In the course of all his scientific activity, Kurbatov was occupied with pedagogical work, which began in Pskov and was later continued in Leningrad and Kirov (during the period of evacuation of the academy) in the Physics Department at VMMA. After the war, L. N. Kurbatov became a professor and the manager of the Department of General Physics of LGU. And after his move to Moscow, Leonid Nikolaevich created and headed the base Department of Physical Electronics of MFTI at the Scientific Research Institute of Applied Physics.
Many of Kurbatov’s students have successfully worked in scientific establishments and at industrial enterprises in Russia and abroad. These include doctors of sciences, professors, recipients of various prizes, and managers of large staffs.
L. N. Kurbatov perfectly mastered the art of the scientific manager, and this gave him the possibility of successfully carrying out complex interconnected fundamental and applied research. Leonid Nikolaevich knew how to create a friendly atmosphere because of his inherent sense of extreme tact and exceptional correctness with respect to his colleagues. Unusual industriousness, kindliness, and high erudition—these marks of his character and features of his creative nature determined the style of his work.
Kurbatov manifested unfailing interest in everything new. His authentic striving toward knowledge went far beyond the limits of his professional pursuits and embraced questions of literature, history, and art. He loved mountains and travel. Being a passionate amateur photographer, Leonid Nikolaevich composed a whole series of photoreports concerning the majestic nature and beauty of mountains.
Kurbatov’s services in the development of Soviet applied physics and the education of highly qualified specialists was widely recognized. He was awarded the Order of Lenin, the Order of the October Revolution, two Orders of the Worker’s Red Ensign, and medals. In 1970 and 1985, L. N. Kurbatov was one of a group of authors who twice received the State Prize of the USSR, and in 1972 he was chosen as a corre-sponding member of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR, with the specialty “technical physics.”
Leonid Nikolaevich Kurbatov was a man who continued his many-sided activity in the best tradition of the Soviet school of physics and combined the quality of a great scholar, a talented organizer, and a pedagogue.

Corresponding Member RAS A. M. Filachev
Professor A. I. Dirochka