In 1907, English engineer H.D. Round, who worked at the world famous laboratories Marconi, happened to notice that running the detector around the point of contact there is a glow. Seriously interested in the same physical phenomenon and tried to find a practical application of Oleg Vladimirovich Losev. Discovered in 1922 during their nocturnal emission crystal detector radio watch, he immediately went to original experiments. In an effort to obtain a stable generation of crystal, he missed a point-contact diode detector current from the batteries. Losev wrote: "crystal silicon carbide (translucent) can be observed (in point of contact), greenish glow when a current through the contact of only 0.4 mA … Luminous detector may be suitable as a light switch as bezynertny light. " The whole world is talking about "bang Losev," the practical application which the inventor had to get up to his death in 1942, four patents.

In 1951, the center for development of "semiconductor lamps," acting on the basis of the "effect of Losev," was created in America, where it led by K. Lehovets. In a study of problems associated with LEDs, took an active part and the "father of transistors" physicist W. Shockley. It soon became clear that germanium (Ge) and silicon (Si), on the basis of which to make transistors (transistors), no prospects for LEDs because of too much "work out" and, consequently, a weak photon emission in the p-n-junction. The success of the single crystals accompanied by complex composite semiconductors – gallium compounds (Ga), arsenic (As), phosphorus (P), indium (In), aluminum (Al) and other elements.