Nikolay Basov
Nikolai Gennadievich Basov (Russian Николай Геннадиевич Басов, scientific transliteration Nikolai Basov Gennadjevič; born December 14, 1922 in Usman, † July 1, 2001 in Moscow) was a Russian physicist and one of the founders of quantum electronics. For these services he received the 1964 Nobel Prize in Physics.
Life
Basov came from an academic family and grew up in central Russian city of Voronezh. After the outbreak of the Second World War, he went to a military academy, which he completed in 1943 with the rank of lieutenant of medical service. After that he took part as a physician assistant in the Second World War. In 1946 he began studying physics at the Institute for Physical Technology in Moscow, from which he graduated in 1950. Starting this year, he worked on his dissertation at the Lebedev Institute of Physics of the Soviet Academy of Sciences in the laboratory for research in vibration Mikhail Leontovich and Alexander Prokhorov, where he simultaneously perceived the site of a research assistant ( wizard ). Together with Prokhorov, he worked on the development of ( ammonia ) maser concept and his habilitation (Russian doctorate ) in 1956 with him with a thesis entitled A molecular oscillator.
From 1958 to 1972 he was deputy director, from 1973 to 1988 director of the Lebedev Institute and at the same time since 1962 Head of Laboratory. In 1957 he investigated the possibilities of the maser concept in the optical range ( laser). In those years in oscillation laboratory under the direction Prokhorov a group of young physicists in the new field of radio spectroscopy. After the construction of a called in the Soviet Union or molecular quantum generator device for generating and amplifying electromagnetic radiation based on the maser principle, the collective of the laboratories of the problem of the theoretical justification for the transfer of maser principle to optical frequency ranges turned. 1958 Basov suggested before a semiconductor laser and discussed various types of applications. These ideas were developed in 1963 to realized high-power lasers.
Back in the early 1960s, he examined next the use of lasers for the production of plasmas for thermonuclear fusion and developed together with Oleg Krochin the proposal of a hybrid reactor. From 1963 he devoted himself to the use of lasers for optical computers and from 1968 for the TVs. In the 1970s he developed gas laser and examined the chemical reactions with lasers. To promote the technical utilization of laser research, Basov suggested the establishment of an appropriate design offices before (realized in 1962 in Troitsk near Moscow ).
Basov was a member of the Soviet Academy of Sciences (1962 Corresponding Member, 1966 a full member in 1967 member of the board ) and a member of the International Academy of Science, and co-founder of the Russian section. In 1967 he was appointed corresponding and two years later became foreign members of the German Academy of Sciences in Berlin, and also incorporated into the German Academy of Sciences Leopoldina in 1971.
Nobel prize
In 1964 he received along with Charles H. Townes and Prokhorov the Nobel Prize in Physics for fundamental work in the field of quantum electronics that led to the base of the maser laser principle for the construction of oscillators and amplifiers. The award of the Nobel Prize to two Soviet scientists was hailed by the party and government leaders in Moscow as a " triumph of the socialist Physics science" and made famous and popular with a blow to both Basov and Prokhorov.
Others
Basov was the founder and editor of the journal Kwantowaja Elektronika ( " Quantum Electronics" ) and the Soviet Journal of Laser Research. He was committed to the popularization of science and was since 1967 editor of the journal Priroda ( "Nature "). Since 1978, he also headed the Soviet mass society for the Popular Science Snanie ( Knowledge ). In recognition of his role in Soviet science, he was elected deputy of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR. Basov was married since 1950 and had two sons.