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Light-emitting diodes

In course of his work as a radio technician, he noticed that diodes used in radio receivers emitted light when current was passed through them. In 1927, Losev published details in a Russian journal of the first-ever light-emitting diode.
In the period of 1924 and 1941, he published a number of articles detailing the function of a device that he developed, which would generate light via electroluminescence when electrons fall to a lower energy level. For example, he published an important paper in Philosophical Magazine.
In 1951, Kurt Lehovec et al. published an important paper in Physical Review. Losev's papers were cited but his name appeared as Lossew. Kurt Lehovec's theoretical explanation is much better than Losev's.
Both Round and Losev experimented with SiC which was used as a radio detector in the early days of wireless. However, SiC is an indirect bandgap semiconductor and so inefficient as a material for light-emitting diode. GaN is a direct bandgap semiconductor and so expected to be the more efficient material. The light from even modern SiC LED is somewhat faint but the light from InGaN LED can be dazzlingly bright. Thus neither Round's nor Losev's pioneering work, even if it had been continued, was likely to lead to a practical success.
In the April 2007 issue of Nature Photonics, Nikolay Zheludev gives credit to Losev for inventing the LED. Specifically, Losev patented the "Light Relay" and foresaw its use in telecommunications.
Unfortunately, before this device could be developed, the Second World War intervened, and Losev died in 1942 during The Siege of Leningrad (now St. Petersburg), at the age of 39.


Other contributions

Crystodyne. View of an experimental panel with a generator and a crystal detector, collected in the laboratory of "News Radio ". In the picture numbers denote the following parts: 1 - vario 2 - variable capacitor, 3 - Cellular coil, 4 - condenser 5nf 5 - Throttle 6 - Potentiometer; 7 - Switch 8 - Resistance 9 - Detector zinc-steel, 10 - the headphone jack, 11 - jack batteries.
In the early 1920s Russia, devastated by civil war, Oleg Losev was experimenting with applying voltage biases to various kinds of crystals, with purpose to refine the reception. The result was astonishing - with a zincyte (zinc oxide) crystal he gained amplification. This was negative resistance phenomenon, decades before the tunnel diode. After the first experiments, he built regenerative and superheterodyne receivers, and even transmitters. However, this discovery was not supported by authorities and soon forgotten and no device was produced in mass quantity beyond a few examples for research. Crystadine was produced in primitive conditions; it can be made in a rural forge - unlike vacuum tubes and modern semiconductor devices
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