The chair was established in 1954 by academician L. A. Artsimovich (its first name was The Chair of Atomic Physics and Electronic Effects), who was the first Head of the Chair until 1973. From 1973 to 1988 academician E. P. Velikhov was Head of the Chair, 1988 to present - Head of the Chair is professor A. T. Rakhimov. In 1966 to expand the scientific research of the chair the department of Plasma Physics was established in the Institute of Nuclear Physics of MSU which was renamed to the Microelectronics department in 1989. In 1988 the laboratory of Cryoelectronics was established at the chair. This history of the chair formation and changes of scientific focus is reflected in the chair title changes. However at present moment this structural division is quite formal, and joint scientific reseaches are carried on by members of different departments.
Nowdays approximately 100 researches (of whom more than 50 are Ph.D.) conduct researches in various scientific areas, that are covered by the disciplines lectured at the chair of Atomic Physics, Plasma Physics and Microelectronics.
During the existence of the chair several significant scientific results were obtained. Here are some of the examples, connected with the high tech area.
Chair members were the world's first to implement and study the stationary semi-self-maintained discharges in gases at atmospheric pressure. Unique physical results obtained in this research allowed to understand the electrodynamics of the semi-self-maintained discharges and the influence of plasma processes on the gas laser parameters.
In the research of gas discharge laser pumping it was shown, that elementary plasma-chemical reaction in gas phase and heterogeneous reactions havily influence the discharge electrodynamic characteristics and essentially change the low temperature plasma composition due to overequilibrium chemically active radicals formation. The study of this area initiated new researches devoted to using gas discharges as plasma-chemical reactors. The results obtained in these studies formed the basis for the development of the new line of plasma-based methods used in vacuum and microelectronics. Nowdays the research in this area is foucsed on the development of physical foundations for the new generation of plasma-chemical reactors, that allow to proceed from micro- to nanoscale technology for Ultra-Large-Scale integration (ULSI) and novel nano-structured materials.
Chair members were the world's first to conduct theoretical and experimental research, that gave rise to the new area of modern nanoelectronics, which is single electronics, that manipulates single electrons. These studies lead to the creation of the the world's first single electron transistor. In the 90s the laboratory research gave rise to the new direction of this area - molecular electronics. In 1996 the world's first single electron transistor based on the single cluster molecule was created, and effects of electron correlated tunneling in such structures at room temperature were shown.
In the 2000s, plasma methods for producing nanocarbon films possessing unique electrophysical properties were developed at the chair. At the present time, the chair conducts theoretical and experimental research on topical problems of atomic and laser physics, physics of low-temperature plasma and gas discharge, superconductivity, superconducting electronics and single-electronics.
The pioneer researches in these ares were noticed by local and international scientific society and rewarded with State and Lomonosov Prizes.
The chair have close scientific connections with leading Russian scientific centers: LPI RAS, GPI RAS, TRINITI, NRC "Kurchatov Institute", ISSP RAS and others, as well as with foreign scientific centers in USA, Canada, France, Germany, Belgium, Sweden and others.