FEW physicists can say that their work has had a profound impact on the lives
of most people alive today. But three scientists whose pioneering work ushered
in the era of microelectronics and the ubiquitous silicon chip can make such a
claim, and they have won this year’s Nobel Prize in Physics for their
efforts.
Russian-born Zhores Alferov of the Ioffe Physico-Technical Institute in St
Petersburg, Russia, and Herbert Kroemer of the University of California at Santa
Barbara shared half of the 拢625,000 prize. They won their award for
developing fast microelectronic and optoelectronic components made of layered
semiconductors…
