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This discovery paved the path to a wide array of contemporary applications for semiconductor lasers used in various areas of science and technology, as it allowed to transform semiconductor laser from a curious toy into a functioning device. Later, in 2000, Dr.Alferov received Noble Prize for those studies.
The importance of this discovery was acknowledged in Soviet Union as well. For his contribution to this research, in 1972 Dr.Dmitri Garbuzov was awarded Lenin’s Prize – the then highest state award of the Soviet Union.
The avalanche-like expansion of the research following the initial efforts of Dr.Alferov’s team into the semiconductor heterojunctions led to the eventual transformation of a small research group into a division which further divided into several research labs. Dmitri Garbuzov concentrated on spontaneous and stimulated luminescence in heterojunction structures. Deep knowledge of physics, endless energy, and passionate interest in scientific research led him to head the Semiconductor Luminescence and Injection Emitters Laboratory.. Heterojunctions on quaternary solid solutions InGaAsP/InP were investigated under Dmitri Garbuzov's leadership. Lasers on these structures are in the basis of optical communications now. Dmitri Garbuzov led the research of re-radiation effects in double heterojunctions. His group established almost 100% efficiency of luminescence in GaAlAs heterostructures. Thanks to Dr.Garbuzov’s keen interest in practical applications of theoretical research, a new class of semiconductors alphanumeric displays was developed.
For fundamental input into development of these devices in 1987 Dmitri Garbuzov was awarded the State Prize – the second highest award in the former Soviet Union.
As a research leader, Dmitri was distinguished with craving for perfection and the desire to know the entire picture of what was going on in the laboratory (however sizeable), his workday would normally last for about 12 hours. And for 15 years his research lab kept racing at the front edge of the research into the semiconductor laser physics.
Looking at the more formal side of things, Dmitri Garbuzov successfully presented his PhD thesis in 1968, doctor-of-science thesis in 1979 (at Ioffe Physico-Technical Institute), received the full professor’s position in 1981, and in 1988 he was elected to the Soviet Union Academy of Science (reformed in 1991 into the Russian Academy of Science). Over that period, he supervised dozens of PhD theses of his students and published more that 150 articles in refereed journals.
In 1980, Dmitri Garbuzov suggested and developed Al-free diode heterolasers for wavelengths around 0.75-1.0 µm, i.e. including the visible (red) part of the spectrum. He also introduced the concept of broad waveguide for high-power semiconductor lasers, which now serves as a basis for the entire industry of producing such lasers. For his efforts in developing Al-free lasers, Dmitri received International Humboldt Award (Germany, given to outstanding foreign scientists) to come to Germany in 1992 and work there as Humboldt Scholar.
In 1993, Dmitri Garbuzov left Germany for the United States, where first he spent a year at the North-Western University, where he worked on Al-free lasers.
In 1994, Dmitri joined Princeton University and Sarnoff Corporation. In Princeton, besides the well-familiar area of semiconductor lasers, Dr.Garbuzov also worked on organic luminescent diodes, and his efforts in this area resulted in over 10 patents. In 1997, Dmitri quit Princeton Univeristy to work entirely for Sarnoff Corporation, developing high-power lasers with broad waveguide – and lasers created by his team demonstrated several world’s power records for wavelengths 980-2000nm. Dr.Garbuzov also worked on long wavelength antimonide lasers. Record lasing wavelength was received at room temperature at 2.7 µm.
Dmitri Garbuzov’s work on high-power stripe lasers was bulk of the research that laid foundation of PLI, a Sarnoff spin-off company. In 2000, Dr.Garbuzov became its Chief Scientist .
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