A Guide to the Russian Academy of Sciences - University of Texas ...

emarkable traditions of solid state investigations had existed at the Institute. They
were established by academician I. V. Kurchatov, the founder of the Institute, who
before the war had carried out the fundamental studies on ferroelectrics and later, in
the mid-50s, supported actively the solid state works iust started at the Institute by
academicians A. P. Aleksandrov and I. K. Kikoin, Kurchatov's associates.
In addition to the notes about the traditions it appears appropriate to remind that in the late
50s and the early 60s the world-known works on the theory of condensed state of
matter were carried out by A. B . Migdal, S. T. Belyev, V. M. Galitski, and Iurii
M. Kagan, and the experimental studies made at the boundary between the nuclear
and solid state physics leading, particularly, to discovery of strong local magnetic
fields on the nuclei of diamagnetic elements implanted into the ferromagnetic metal
matrix (B. N. Samoilov, V. V. Sklyarevski et al), to finding the general regularities
in the spectra of thermal excitation of crystals (phonon spectra) by inelastic
scattering of cold neutrons on specimens of the crystals with a zero average
amplitude of the coherent scattering and the crystals with heavy and light
substitutional impurities (N. A. Chernoplekov, M. G. Zemlyanov), as well as to
the formation of the basic ideas about the superconducting state stability in the
magnetic systems, and to creation of the superconducting solenoids with the high
(by the standards of that time) parameters (B. N. Samoilov, V. E. Keilin, E. Iurii
Klimenko et al.). The above mentioned works are only a part of the investigations
on the solid state physics carried out at the Kurchatov Institute. The large arsenal of
the theoretical and experimental methods created in the nuclear physics together
with the development in the solid state physics should be extremely fruitful both
for the solid state and nuclear physics itself. On the other hand, the fundamental
and applied studies on solid state physics carried out on this new basis should give
rise to the new possibilities for practical use of the investigation results for the
needs of the technique and industry and, first of all, for the nuclear engineering and
industry.
At present the solid state physics studies are being conducted in the following directions:
structure, excitation spectra, thermodynamical, kinetic and other
properties of the condensed media in the crystal, disordered, amorphous
and thin film states;
radiation-matter interactions;
quantum crystals and liquids;
superconducting state and properties of the superconductors both of the
helium level of temperatures and high temperature;
behavior of substances under external conditions of low temperatures,
strong magnetic fields, and high pressure.
The important feature of these works is that they employ the nuclear physical methods
(scattering of neutrons, electrons, X-rays, synchronous radiation, EPR, NMR, and
SR-spectroscopy) parallel with the methods traditionally used in the solid state
physics. At the same time in the Kurchatov Institute a large amount of applied
research primarily to the field of technical superconductivity is carried out: practical
application of both the low temperature (LTSC) and high-temperature (HTSC)
superconductors for the current engineering needs. These works include:
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