Basov Nobel laureate. Biography

Foreign member of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences (1974). Deputy of the Council of the Union of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR 9-11 convocations from Moscow.

Biography

Basov was born in the city of Usman (now a city in the Lipetsk region). Father - Gennady Fedorovich Basov. In 1927, the family moved from Usman to Voronezh. Member of the Komsomol from 1936 to 1950. In 1941, Basov graduated from Voronezh school No. 13, which was located at the intersection of st. Karl Marx and st. Friedrich Engels, after school he was trained as a medical assistant at the Kuibyshev Military Medical Academy. In 1943, he went to the front and served as a doctor’s assistant on the Ukrainian front.

After the war, Basov entered MEPhI and defended his diploma in 1950. Since 1948, he worked as a laboratory assistant at the Lebedev Physical Institute of the USSR Academy of Sciences (FIAN), where he continued his work after receiving his diploma under the guidance of M.A. Leontovich and A. M. Prokhorov. In 1953, Basov defended his candidate's dissertation, and in 1956, his doctoral dissertation.

In 1958-1972, Basov was deputy director of the Lebedev Physical Institute, and from 1973 to 1989 he was the director of this institute. Here in 1963 he organized the Laboratory of Quantum Radiophysics, which he headed until his death. In 1962, Basov was elected a corresponding member of the USSR Academy of Sciences, and in 1966 - an academician of the USSR Academy of Sciences, and was subsequently elected to the Presidium of the Academy of Sciences (member of the Presidium of the USSR Academy of Sciences from 1967 to 1990, RAS from 1991).

Basov was the editor-in-chief of the journals “Science”, “Quantum”, “Quantum Electronics”, “Nature”, in 1978-1990 he was the chairman of the board of the All-Union Educational Society “Znanie”, and was replaced in this post by K. V. Frolov.

Family

In 1950, he married Ksenia Tikhonovna Nazarova, and is the father of two sons - Gennady (born 1954) and Dmitry (born 1963).

Scientific activities

Basov's works are devoted to quantum electronics and its applications. Together with A.M. Prokhorov, he established the principle of amplification and generation of electromagnetic radiation by quantum systems, which made it possible in 1954 to create the first quantum generator (maser) using a beam of ammonia molecules. The following year, a three-level scheme for creating an inverse population of levels was proposed, which has found wide application in masers and lasers. These works (as well as the research of the American physicist Charles Townes) formed the basis of a new direction in physics - quantum electronics. For fundamental work in the field of quantum electronics, which led to the creation of the laser and maser, Basov and A.M. Prokhorov was awarded the Lenin Prize in 1959, and in 1964, together with C. H. Townes, the Nobel Prize in Physics.

Together with Yu.M. Popov and B.M. Vulom Basov proposed the idea of ​​​​creating various types of semiconductor lasers: in 1962 the first injection laser was created, then lasers excited by an electron beam, and in 1964 - semiconductor lasers with optical pumping. Basov also conducted research on powerful gas and chemical lasers; hydrogen fluoride and iodine lasers were created, and then an excimer laser.

A number of Basov’s works are devoted to the issues of propagation and interaction of high-power laser pulses with matter. He came up with the idea of ​​using lasers to control thermonuclear fusion (1961), proposed methods for laser heating of plasma, and analyzed the processes of stimulating chemical reactions with laser radiation.

Basov developed the physical basis for the creation of quantum frequency standards, put forward ideas for new applications of lasers in optoelectronics (such as the creation of optical logic elements), and initiated many studies on nonlinear optics.

Awards

• Lenin Prize (1959)
• Nobel Prize in Physics (1964, for his fundamental work in the field of quantum electronics)
• Twice Hero of Socialist Labor (1969, 1982)
• Gold Medal of the Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences (1975)
• A. Volta Gold Medal (1977)
• USSR State Prize (1989)
• Big gold medal named after M.V. Lomonosov (1990)
• Five Orders of Lenin

Publications

Books

• V. Stefan and N. G. Basov (Editors). Semiconductor Science and Technology, Volume 1. Semiconductor Lasers. (Stefan University Press Series on Frontiers in Science and Technology) (Paperback). 1999. ISBN 1-889545-11-2
• V. Stefan and N. G. Basov (Editors). Semiconductor Science and Technology, Volume 2: Quantum Dots and Quantum Wells. (Stefan University Press Series on Frontiers in Science and Technology) (Paperback). 1999. ISBN 1-889545-12-0

Basov, Nikolai Gennadievich

(b. December 14, 1922) - Soviet physicist, one of the founders of quantum electronics, academician (1966; corresponding member 1962). R. in Voronezh. Graduated from the Moscow Engineering Physics Institute (1950). Since 1950 he has been working at the Physical Institute of the USSR Academy of Sciences (in 1958-72 - deputy director, since 1962 - head of the laboratory of quantum radiophysics, since 1973 - director), since 1963 - also a professor at the Moscow Engineering Physics Institute.

Works in various areas of quantum radiophysics and its applications. He discovered the principle of generation and amplification of radiation by quantum systems, developed the physical foundations of frequency standards, put forward a number of ideas in the field of semiconductor quantum generators, conducted research on the formation and amplification of powerful light pulses, on the interaction of powerful light radiation with matter, developed a laser method for heating plasma for controlled thermonuclear synthesis, carried out a significant series of studies on powerful gas quantum generators, chemical lasers, and put forward new ideas for the use of lasers in optoelectronics.

Together with A.M. Prokhorov created in 1954 the first quantum generator using a beam of ammonia molecules, and in 1955 he proposed a three-level method for creating nonequilibrium quantum systems, widely used in quantum generators and amplifiers of the radio and optical range. These works, as well as the research of the American physicist Ch. Townes marked the beginning of the development of a new scientific direction - quantum electronics. For their work on quantum generators, Basov and Prokhorov were awarded the Lenin Prize in 1959, and in 1964, together with Charles Townes, they were awarded the Nobel Prize for fundamental research in the field of quantum radiophysics, which made it possible to create generators and amplifiers of a new type - masers and lasers. Basov came up with the idea of ​​using semiconductors in lasers; he developed methods for creating various types of semiconductor lasers.

In 1961 he drew attention to the possibility of using lasers in thermonuclear fusion, and his subsequent work led to the creation of a new direction in the problem of controlled thermonuclear reactions - methods of laser thermonuclear fusion. In 1963 he substantiated new methods of thermal excitation of laser systems, somewhat later he began a series of studies on chemical quantum generators, and conducted a series of studies on stimulating chemical reactions with laser radiation.

Twice Hero of Socialist Labor (1969, 1982). Created a school of physicists. Member of a number of foreign academies of sciences. Chairman of the Board of the Knowledge Society (since 1978), editor-in-chief of the magazines Quantum Electronics and Nature. Gold medal of A. Volta (1977).

Lit.: UFN, 1973, vol. 109, issue. 2; 1982, vol. 138, issue. 4; Development of physics in the USSR. - M., Nauka, 1967, 2 books.

B A Sov, Nikolai Gennadievich

Genus. December 14, 1922, in Voronezh, d. June 30, 2001, in Moscow. MEPhI graduate, physicist; was at the origins of quantum electronics, the discoverer of the principle of generation and amplification of radiation by quantum systems, one of the creators maser(1954). The author of a number of important ideas and discoveries, he published works on semiconductor lasers, the theory of high-power pulses of solid-state lasers, quantum frequency standards, and the interaction of high-power laser radiation with matter. In 1978-90 Chairman of the Board of the All-Union Society "Knowledge". Laureate of the Lenin (1959), Nobel (1964) and USSR State Prize (1989). Academician of the USSR Academy of Sciences (1966), twice Hero of Socialist Labor (1969, 1982), academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences (1991). Awarded a gold medal named after. A. Volta (1977) and the gold medal named after. M. V. Lomonosov (1990).

Basov, Nikolai Gennadievich

Full member of the Russian Academy of Sciences; born on December 14, 1922 in the city of Usman, Voronezh province (now Lipetsk region); participant in the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945; graduated from the Kiev Military Medical School in 1943, Moscow Mechanical Institute (now Moscow Engineering Physics Institute), Doctor of Science; from 1949 he worked at the Physical Institute named after. P. N. Lebedeva USSR Academy of Sciences (FIAN), 1973-1988 - director of FIAN; headed the department of quantum radiophysics of the Lebedev Physical Institute, the department of quantum radio electronics at MEPhI; main areas of scientific activity: laser physics and quantum electronics, one of the founders of quantum electronics; was a member of the Presidium of the USSR Academy of Sciences (1967-1990), advisor to the Presidium of the Russian Academy of Sciences (1990-2001); twice Hero of Socialist Labor; was awarded five Orders of Lenin, the Order of the Patriotic War, II degree, the Order of Merit for the Fatherland, II degree, and other domestic and foreign awards; Nobel Prize winner (1964); laureate of the Lenin (1959) and State Prizes; died July 1, 2001

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Basov, Nikolai Gennadievich- Nikolai Gennadievich Basov. BASOV Nikolai Gennadievich (born in 1922), Russian physicist, one of the founders of quantum electronics. Together with A.M. Prokhorov and independently of Charles Townes created the first maser. Developed various types... ... Illustrated Encyclopedic Dictionary

- (December 14, 1922, Voronezh June 30, 2001, Moscow), Russian physicist, one of the founders of quantum electronics, academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences (1991; academician of the USSR Academy of Sciences since 1966), twice Hero of Socialist Labor (1969, 1982). Graduated from Moscow Engineering... ... Encyclopedic Dictionary

- (b. 1922) Russian physicist, one of the founders of quantum electronics, academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences (1991; academician of the USSR Academy of Sciences since 1966), twice Hero of Socialist Labor (1969, 1982). Created (together with A.M. Prokhorov) the first quantum maser generator.… … Big Encyclopedic Dictionary

BASOV, NIKOLAI GENNADIEVICH(1922–2001), Russian physicist. Born on December 14, 1922 in the city of Usman near Voronezh in the family of a professor at the Voronezh Forestry Institute. In 1941 he graduated from school, was drafted into the army, and served as a doctor’s assistant on the Ukrainian Front. After demobilization in 1945 he entered the Moscow Engineering Physics Institute. Since 1948 he worked as a laboratory assistant at the Physical Institute. P.N. Lebedeva (FIAN). After graduating from the institute, Basov entered graduate school (his supervisors were M.A. Leontovich and A.M. Prokhorov). In 1953 he defended his PhD thesis on the topic Determination of nuclear moments by radio spectroscopic method, and in 1956 – a doctorate devoted to theoretical and experimental studies of a molecular generator using ammonia.

In 1952, Basov and Prokhorov published the first results of a theoretical analysis of the effects of amplification and generation of electromagnetic radiation by quantum systems. In order for an optical system to generate a powerful stream of photons, it is necessary that an inverted population be created in the medium - a nonequilibrium state in which there are fewer more highly excited atoms than lower excited atoms. In 1955, Basov and Prokhorov proposed an effective “three-level” method for obtaining population inversion, which allowed them to create quantum generators of a fundamentally new type - masers (this name is an abbreviation for Microwave Amplification by Stimulated Emission Radiation, amplification of microwaves by stimulated emission). An independently and almost simultaneously operating maser was created by the American physicist Charles Townes, and in 1964 Basov, Prokhorov and Townes were awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics for this work. In 1962 Basov was elected a corresponding member, and in 1966 - a full member of the USSR Academy of Sciences.

In 1959, Basov and Prokhorov proposed creating inverse population in semiconductors in a pulsed electric field and substantiated the creation of optical quantum generators - lasers with optical pumping, injection and electronic excitation. Injection lasers were created in 1962 simultaneously in the USSR (at the Lebedev Physical Institute) and in the USA, and in 1964 in Basov’s laboratory lasing was obtained by exciting cadmium sulfide with an electron beam. By the end of the 1960s, his laboratory also developed high-power optical lasers on ruby ​​and neodymium glass, and a powerful photodissociation laser on iodine vapor. In 1968, for the first time, neutrons were obtained by irradiating laser targets, which played a major role in further work on laser thermonuclear fusion. In 1971, the first “technological” laser installation on neodymium glass was created at the Lebedev Physical Institute, designed to compress laser targets.

Working mainly with solid-state quantum generators, Basov also attached great importance to gas lasers. In 1962, lasing was first obtained in his laboratory using a mixture of helium and neon; Later, research was carried out to create high-precision frequency standards. In 1963, Basov, together with A.N. Oraevsky, substantiated the production of population inversion during thermal pumping, and in the mid-1960s, his laboratory conducted research related to the creation of chemical chlorine-hydrogen and fluorine-hydrogen lasers. In the late 1960s, research into pulsed photodissociation lasers was carried out in Basov's laboratory, and in 1970 the first excimer laser was created. In 1973, Basov became director of FIAN and remained in this post until 1992. In 1990 he was awarded the Gold Medal. M.V. Lomonosov Academy of Sciences of the USSR.

Basov taught at the Moscow Engineering Physics Institute and paid great attention to educational activities - in 1978–1990 he was the chairman of the All-Union Society “Znanie”, for many years he was the editor-in-chief of the popular science magazine “Nature”. Basov was an honorary member of the academies of sciences in many countries of the world, and for many years he was vice-chairman of the executive council of the World Federation of Scientists.

Russian physicist Nikolai Gennadievich Basov was born in the village (now city) Usman, near Voronezh, in the family of Gennady Fedorovich Basov and Zinaida Andreevna Molchanova. His father, a professor at the Voronezh Forestry Institute, specialized in the effects of forest plantings on groundwater and surface drainage. After graduating from school in 1941, young B. went to serve in the Soviet Army. During World War II, he trained as a physician's assistant at the Kuibyshev Military Medical Academy and was assigned to the Ukrainian Front.

After demobilization in December 1945, B. studied theoretical and experimental physics at the Moscow Engineering Physics Institute. In 1948, two years before graduating from the institute, he began working as a laboratory assistant at the Physical Institute. P.N. Lebedev Academy of Sciences of the USSR in Moscow. Having received his diploma, he continued his studies under the guidance of M.A. Leontovich and Alexander Prokhorov, defending his candidate's thesis (similar to his master's thesis) in 1953. Three years later, he became a Doctor of Physical and Mathematical Sciences, defending a dissertation devoted to theoretical and experimental studies of a molecular generator in which ammonia was used as an active medium.

The basic principle underlying the molecular oscillator (now known as a maser, after the initial letters of the English expression meaning microwave amplification by stimulated emission of radiation) was first explained by Albert Einstein in 1917. By studying the interaction between electromagnetic radiation and a group of molecules in a confined space, Einstein came up with a three-term equation that contained something unexpected. These terms described the absorption and emission of radiation by molecules. Quantum mechanics have shown that electromagnetic radiation consists of discrete units of energy called photons, and that the energy of each photon is proportional to the frequency of the radiation. Likewise, the energy of atoms and molecules, associated with the configuration and movement of their electrons, is limited to certain discrete values, or energy levels. Many energy levels are individual for a particular atom or molecule. Photons whose energy is equal to the difference between two energy levels can be absorbed, and then the atom or molecule moves from a lower to a higher energy level. Some time later, they spontaneously return to a lower level (not necessarily the one from which they started) and release energy equal to the difference between the previous and new levels in the form of a photon of radiation.

The first two terms in Einstein's equation are associated with the already known processes of absorption and spontaneous emission. The third term, discovered by Einstein, was associated with a then unknown type of radiation. It was a transition from a higher to a lower energy level caused simply by the presence of radiation of the appropriate frequency, whose photons had an energy equal to the difference between the two levels. Since this radiation does not occur spontaneously, but is provoked by special circumstances, it was called stimulated (induced) radiation. Although this was an interesting phenomenon, its benefits were not at all obvious. The physical law formulated by the Austrian physicist Ludwig Boltzmann showed that in a state of equilibrium, higher energy levels are occupied by fewer electrons than lower ones. Therefore, relatively few atoms take part in the stimulated emission.

B. came up with a way to use stimulated radiation to amplify incoming radiation and create a molecular generator. To achieve this, he had to obtain a state of matter with an inverse population of energy levels, increasing the number of excited molecules relative to the number of molecules in the ground state. This was achieved by isolating excited molecules using inhomogeneous electric and magnetic fields for this purpose. If you then irradiate the substance with radiation of the required frequency, whose photons have an energy equal to the difference between the excited and ground states of the molecules, then stimulated radiation of the same frequency arises, amplifying the supply signal. He then managed to create a generator, directing part of the emitted energy to excite more molecules and obtain an even greater activation of radiation. The resulting device was not only an amplifier, but also a generator of radiation with a frequency precisely determined by the energy levels of the molecule.

At the All-Union Conference on Radio Spectroscopy in May 1952, B. and Prokhorov proposed the design of a molecular oscillator based on population inversion, the idea of ​​which they, however, did not publish until October 1954. The following year, B. and Prokhorov published a note on the “three-level method " According to this scheme, if atoms are transferred from the ground state to the highest of three energy levels, there will be more molecules in the intermediate level than in the lower one, and stimulated emission can be produced with a frequency corresponding to the energy difference between the two lower levels.

American physicist Charles H. Townes, working independently in the same direction at Columbia University, created a working maser (he and his colleagues coined this term) in 1953, just ten months before B. and Prokhorov published their first work on molecular generators. Townes used a resonant cavity filled with excited ammonia molecules and achieved incredible amplification of microwaves with a frequency of 24,000 megahertz. In 1960, American physicist Theodore Mayman, while working for Hughes Aircraft, built a device based on the three-level principle to amplify and generate red light. Maymen's resonance cavity was a long crystal of synthetic ruby ​​with mirrored ends; exciting radiation was produced by flashes of a spiral tube filled with xenon (similar to a neon tube) surrounding the ruby. Mayman's device became known as a laser, a name derived from the initial letters of the English expression meaning light amplification by stimulated emission.

“For fundamental work in the field of quantum electronics, which led to the creation of oscillators and amplifiers based on the laser-maser principle,” B. shared the 1964 Nobel Prize in Physics with Prokhorov and Townes. Two Soviet physicists had already received the Lenin Prize for their work in 1959.

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B. wrote alone and co-authored several hundred articles on masers and lasers. His work on lasers dates back to 1957, when he and his colleagues began developing and constructing them. They consistently developed many types of lasers based on crystals, semiconductors, gases, various combinations of chemical elements, as well as multichannel and high-power short-pulse lasers. B., in addition, was the first to demonstrate the action of a laser in the ultraviolet region of the electromagnetic spectrum. In addition to his fundamental research on population inversion in semiconductors and on transient processes in various molecular systems, he devoted considerable attention to practical applications of the laser, especially the possibility of its use in nuclear fusion.

From 1958 to 1972, B. was deputy director at the Institute. P.N. Lebedev, and from 1973 to 1989 - its director. At the same institute, he has headed the radiophysics laboratory since its creation in 1963. Since that year, he has also been a professor at the Moscow Engineering Physics Institute.

In 1950, B. married Ksenia Tikhonovna Nazarova, a physicist from MEPhI. They have two sons.

In addition to the Nobel Prize, B. received the title of twice Hero of Socialist Labor (1969, 1982), and was awarded the gold medal of the Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences (1975). He was elected a corresponding member of the USSR Academy of Sciences (1962), a full member (1966) and a member of the Presidium of the Academy of Sciences (1967). He is a member of many other academies of sciences, including the academies of Poland, Czechoslovakia, Bulgaria and France; he is also a member of the German Academy of Naturalists "Leopoldina", the Royal Swedish Academy of Engineering Sciences and the Optical Society of America. Basov is vice-chairman of the executive council of the World Federation of Scientific Workers and president of the All-Union Society "Znanie". He is a member of the Soviet Peace Committee and the World Peace Council, as well as the editor-in-chief of the popular science magazines Nature and Quantum. He was elected to the Supreme Council in 1974 and was a member of its Presidium in 1982.

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N.G. Basov is an academician, Nobel Prize laureate, one of the founders of quantum radiophysics, director of the Order of Lenin Physical Institute. Lebedev Academy of Sciences of the USSR, one of the largest scientific centers in the world, twice Hero of Socialist Labor, awarded five Orders of Lenin and medals. The Academy of Sciences of the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic awarded the gold medal “For services to science and humanity.”

The great Soviet physicist Nikolai Gennadievich Basov was born in the city of Usman on December 14, 1922 in the family of Zinaida Andreevna and Gennady Fedorovich Basov. When the boy was five years old, the family moved to Voronezh.

His father was a professor at the Voronezh Forestry Institute. The end of school coincided with the beginning of the Great Patriotic War. Nikolai, having completed courses as a medical assistant at the Military Medical Academy, went to the front.

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After the war, Basov continued his education and entered the Moscow Engineering Physics Institute, while simultaneously working as a laboratory assistant at the Lebedev Physical Institute of the USSR Academy of Sciences. It was here that, a few years later, he defended his doctoral dissertation and became deputy director in 1958, and then director.

The main direction of Basov’s work is quantum electronics. In 1963, Basov organized a laboratory of quantum radiophysics at the institute, where he continued his research in the field of quantum electronics. The scientist managed to create the first quantum generator together with his colleagues.

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N.G. Basov was also involved in scientific and educational work, heading the editorial board of the journals “Science”, “Nature”, “Quantum Electronics” and the “Knowledge” society.

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On December 11, 1964, the founders of quantum physics - Soviet scientists Alexander Prokhorov, Nikolai Basov, as well as the American researcher Charles Townes were awarded the most prestigious international award - the Nobel Prize, which they were awarded for fundamental research in the field of quantum electronics, leading to the creation of masers and lasers .

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• In honor and recognition of the merits of Nikolai Gennadievich, a bronze bust was installed in Usman in 1986 near the house where he was born.
• In honor of the 70th anniversary of the birth of the famous countryman, deputies of the City Council twenty years ago decided to assign N.G. Basov with the title “Honorary Citizen of Usman”.
• And one of the city streets bears his name.