Alexey Ekimov or Aleksey Yekimov (; born 1945) is a Russian solid state physicist and a pioneer in

nanomaterials Nanomaterials describe, in principle, chemical substances or materials of which a single unit is sized (in at least one dimension) between 1 and 100 nm (the usual definition of nanoscale). Nanomaterials research takes a materials science ...

research. He discovered the

semiconductor A semiconductor is a material with electrical conductivity between that of a conductor and an insulator. Its conductivity can be modified by adding impurities (" doping") to its crystal structure. When two regions with different doping level ...

nanocrystals known as

quantum dot Quantum dots (QDs) or semiconductor nanocrystals are semiconductor particles a few nanometres in size with optical and electronic properties that differ from those of larger particles via quantum mechanical effects. They are a central topic i ...

s in 1981, while working at the

Vavilov State Optical Institute The Vavilov State Optical Institute in St Petersburg, Russia (named after Sergey Ivanovich Vavilov) is a research institute in optics in Russia. It works both in pure and applied optics. It was established in 1918 along the lines of a proposal by ...

. In 2023, he was awarded the

Nobel Prize in Chemistry The Nobel Prize in Chemistry () is awarded annually by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences to scientists in the various fields of chemistry. It is one of the five Nobel Prizes established by the will of Alfred Nobel in 1895, awarded for outst ...

for this discovery.

Life

Early years and education

Ekimov was born in

Leningrad Saint Petersburg, formerly known as Petrograd and later Leningrad, is the List of cities and towns in Russia by population, second-largest city in Russia after Moscow. It is situated on the Neva, River Neva, at the head of the Gulf of Finland ...

Soviet Union The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

in 1945. In 1967, he graduated from the Faculty of Physics,

Leningrad State University Saint Petersburg State University (SPBGU; ) is a public research university in Saint Petersburg, Russia, and one of the oldest and most prestigious universities in Russia. Founded in 1724 by a decree of Peter the Great, the university from the be ...

. He went on to receive his PhD in physics at the

Ioffe Institute The Ioffe Physical-Technical Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences (for short, Ioffe Institute, ) is one of Russia's largest research centers specialized in physics and technology. The institute was established in 1918 in Petrograd (now St. ...

of the

Russian Academy of Sciences The Russian Academy of Sciences (RAS; ''Rossíyskaya akadémiya naúk'') consists of the national academy of Russia; a network of scientific research institutes from across the Russian Federation; and additional scientific and social units such ...

in 1974.

Research and career

After graduation, Ekimov moved to the

to conduct research. He began studying

-activated glasses, known as Schott glasses, and developing theories to explain their color. When the glasses were heated and then cooled, copper chloride crystals formed, as revealed by

X-rays An X-ray (also known in many languages as Röntgen radiation) is a form of high-energy electromagnetic radiation with a wavelength shorter than those of ultraviolet rays and longer than those of gamma rays. Roughly, X-rays have a wavelength ran ...

, creating blue colors. Smaller crystals produced bluer glass. In 1981, Ekimov, along with Alexei A. Onushchenko, reported the discovery of

quantum size effects Mesoscopic physics is a subdiscipline of condensed matter physics that deals with materials of an intermediate size. These materials range in size between the nanoscale Nanotechnology is the manipulation of matter with at least one dimens ...

in copper chloride nanocrystals in glass, a phenomenon known now known as

quantum dots Quantum dots (QDs) or semiconductor nanocrystals are semiconductor particles a few nanometres in size with optical and electronic properties that differ from those of larger particles via quantum mechanical effects. They are a central topic i ...

. During his time at the institute he further investigated these system and developed the theory of

quantum confinement A potential well is the region surrounding a local minimum of potential energy. Energy captured in a potential well is unable to convert to another type of energy (kinetic energy in the case of a gravitational potential well) because it is captu ...

with

Alexander Efros Alexander Lwowitsch Efros () is a Russian physicist. Efros is the co-discoverer of semiconducting nanocrystals known as quantum dots. Efros graduated as a physical engineer in 1973 from the Leningrad Technological Institute and received his docto ...

. Since 1999, Ekimov has been living and working in the United States as a scientist for Nanocrystals Technology, a company based in

New York State New York, also called New York State, is a state in the northeastern United States. Bordered by New England to the east, Canada to the north, and Pennsylvania and New Jersey to the south, its territory extends into both the Atlantic Ocean and ...

Honors and awards

Ekimov was awarded the 1975 USSR State Prize in Science and Engineering for work on electron spin orientation in semiconductors. He is co-recipient of the 2006 R. W. Wood Prize of the

Optical Society of America Optica, founded as the Optical Society of America (later the Optical Society), is a professional society of individuals and companies with an interest in optics and photonics. It publishes journals, organizes conferences and exhibitions, and ca ...

for "discovery of nanocrystal quantum dots and pioneering studies of their electronic and optical properties" shared with

and

Louis E. Brus Louis Eugene Brus (born August 10, 1943) is an American chemist, and currently the Samuel Latham Mitchell Professor of Chemistry at Columbia University. He is the co-discoverer of the colloidal semi-conductor nanocrystals known as quantum dots. ...

. Ekimov, Brus and

Moungi Bawendi Moungi Bawendi (; born 15 March 1961) is an Americans, AmericanTunisians in France, –Tunisian–French chemist. He is currently the Lester Wolfe Professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Bawendi is known for his advances in the ch ...

were the recipients of the 2023

"for the discovery and synthesis of quantum dots".

Selected publications

* * * *

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Ekimov, Alexei 1945 births Living people Nobel laureates in Chemistry Physical chemists Place of birth missing (living people) Recipients of the USSR State Prize Russian physicists Saint Petersburg State University alumni Soviet physicists Russian Nobel laureates Nanotechnologists 20th-century Russian scientists