Basov, Nikolai Gennadievich. Nikolai Gennadievich Basov Nikolai Gennadievich Basov biography

Born on December 14, 1922 in the city of Usman, in the family of professor of the Voronezh Forestry Institute Gennady Fedorovich Basov and Zinaida Andreevna Molchanova. Russian. After graduating from school in 1941, young Basov went to serve in the Soviet Army. During the Great Patriotic War, he trained as a physician's assistant at the Kuibyshev Military Medical Academy and was seconded to the Ukrainian Front.

After demobilization in December 1945, Basov 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 P.N. Lebedev Physical Institute of the USSR Academy of Sciences (FIAN) in Moscow. Having received his diploma in 1950, he continued his studies under the guidance of M.A. Leontovich and A.M. Prokhorov, defending his candidate's thesis (similar to the master's thesis) in 1953. Three years later (1956) he became a Doctor of Physical and Mathematical Sciences, having defended a dissertation devoted to theoretical and experimental studies of a molecular generator in which ammonia was used as an active medium.

Basov came up with a way to use stimulated radiation to amplify incoming radiation and create a molecular oscillator. 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, Basov and Prokhorov proposed the design of a molecular oscillator based on population inversion, the idea of ​​which, however, they did not publish until October 1954. The following year, Basov 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.

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 with electronic excitation. Injection lasers were created in 1962 simultaneously in the USSR and 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.

In 1964, “for fundamental work in the field of quantum electronics, which led to the creation of generators and amplifiers based on the laser-maser principle,” Nikolai Gennadievich Basov and Alexander Mikhailovich Prokhorov, as well as the American physicist Charles Hard Townes, shared the Nobel Prize awarded to them. physics. Two Soviet physicists had already received the Lenin Prize for their work in 1959.

In 1958-1972, deputy director, in 1973-1989 - director of the P.N. Lebedev Physical Institute of the USSR Academy of Sciences. At the same institute, he headed the laboratory of quantum radiophysics from its creation, in 1963, until the end of his life.

In 1962 he was elected a corresponding member, in 1966 - a full member (academician) of the USSR Academy of Sciences (since 1991 - the Russian Academy of Sciences). In 1967-1990, member of the Presidium of the USSR Academy of Sciences, in 1990-2001, advisor to the Presidium of the Russian Academy of Sciences.

By a decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR dated March 13, 1969, the deputy director of the P.N. Lebedev Physical Institute of the USSR Academy of Sciences (AS) Nikolai Gennadievich Basov was awarded the title of Hero of Socialist Labor with the presentation of the Order of Lenin and the Hammer and Sickle gold medal.

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 highly accurate 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; in 1970, the first excimer laser was created.

Basov taught at the Moscow Engineering Physics Institute (since 1963) 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 magazines "Nature" and "Kvant" . Basov was an honorary member of the academies of sciences in many countries of the world, including Poland, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia and France, for many years he was vice-chairman of the executive council of the World Federation of Scientists, and was a member of the Soviet Peace Committee and the World Peace Council.

By decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR dated December 13, 1982, the director of the P.N. Lebedev Physical Institute of the USSR Academy of Sciences (AS) Nikolai Gennadievich Basov was awarded the Order of Lenin and the second gold medal “Hammer and Sickle”.

Since 1974 he was a member of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, and since 1982 - a member of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR.

Lived in Moscow. Died on July 1, 2001. He was buried at the Novodevichy cemetery in Moscow (section 11).

Awarded five Orders of Lenin, the Order of the Patriotic War, 2nd degree, the Order of Merit for the Fatherland, 2nd degree (1997), medals, including the Great Gold Medal named after M.V. Lomonosov of the USSR Academy of Sciences (1990), as well as orders and medals of foreign countries, including the Gold Medal of the Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences (1975) and the Gold Medal named after A. Volta (1977).

Laureate of the Lenin Prize (1959), USSR State Prize (1989), Nobel Prize in Physics (1964).

Awards:

• Lenin Prize (1959)
• Nobel Prize in Physics (1964, for 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

Alexander Mikhailovich Prokhorov was born on July 11, 1916 in Atherton (Australia) into the family of fugitive exiles Mikhail and Maria. In 1911 they fled from Siberia to Australia. After the revolution and civil war, the Prokhorov family returned to their homeland in 1923, where after some time they settled in Leningrad.

In 1934, in the northern capital, Alexander graduated from high school with a gold medal. After which he entered the physics department of Leningrad State University (LSU). And Alexander also graduated from the university in 1939 with honors. A diploma with honors gave the right to immediate admission to graduate school, and Prokhorov immediately took advantage of this, becoming a graduate student at the Physics Institute of the USSR Academy of Sciences. P.N. Lebedev in Moscow. Here the young scientist began researching the processes of radio wave propagation along the earth's surface. He proposed an original way to study the ionosphere using the radio interference method.

In 1941, Prokhorov married Galina Alekseevna Shelepina, a geographer by profession, and they had a son.

From the very beginning of the Patriotic War, Prokhorov was in the ranks of the active army. He fought in the infantry, in reconnaissance, was awarded military awards, and was wounded twice. Demobilized in 1944, after a second serious wound, he returned to his scientific work at the Lebedev Physical Institute, interrupted by the war. Prokhorov began research that was relevant at that time on the theory of nonlinear oscillations. These works formed the basis of his Ph.D. thesis. For the creation of the theory of frequency stabilization of a tube oscillator in 1948, he was awarded the Prize named after Academician L.I. Mandelstam.

In 1947, the Lebedev Physical Institute launched a synchrotron, a device in which charged particles move in expanding cyclic orbits. With the help of a synchrotron in 1948, Alexander Mikhailovich begins research into the nature and nature of electromagnetic radiation emitted in cyclic accelerators of charged particles. In a very short time, he managed to conduct a large series of successful experiments to study the coherent properties of magneto-bremsstrahlung radiation of relativistic electrons moving in a uniform magnetic field in a synchrotron - synchrotron radiation.

As a result of his research, Prokhorov proved that synchrotron radiation can be used as a source of coherent radiation in the centimeter wavelength range, determined the main characteristics and power level of the source, and proposed a method for determining the size of electron bunches.

This classic work opened up an entire field of research. Its results were formalized in the form of a doctoral dissertation, successfully defended by Alexander Mikhailovich in 1951. In 1950, Prokhorov began work in a completely new direction of physics - radio spectroscopy.

In spectroscopy, a new range of wavelengths - centimeter and millimeter - was then mastered. The rotational and some vibrational spectra of molecules fell into this range. This opened up completely new opportunities in the study of fundamental questions of molecular structure. Prokhorov's rich experimental and theoretical experience in the field of oscillation theories, radio engineering and radio physics was perfectly suited for mastering this new field.

With the support of Academician D.V. Skobeltsyn, in the shortest possible time, together with a group of young employees of the vibration laboratory, Prokhorov created a domestic school of radio spectroscopy, which quickly gained leading positions in world science. One of these young employees was a graduate of the Moscow Engineering Physics Institute, Nikolai Gennadievich Basov.

Basov was born on December 14, 1922 in the city of Usman, Voronezh province, in the family of Gennady Fedorovich Basov, later a professor at Voronezh University.

Basov's graduation from school coincided with the beginning of the Great Patriotic War. In 1941, Nikolai was drafted into the army. He was sent to the Kuibyshev Military Medical Academy. A year later he was transferred to the Kiev Military Medical School.

Since 1943, Nikolai has been in the active army. Subsequently, he recalled: “I had such a case. This means that soldiers are digging dugouts. The work is hard, and one soldier suffered from appendicitis. It needs to be cut, I only once saw a professor remove the appendix, I assisted him a little, giving him various tools. I placed four soldiers who held a sheet on top - dirt and sand fell from the slope of the dugout. He gave half a glass of alcohol instead of anesthesia and performed an operation!.. By the way, this guy is still alive.”

In 1946, Nikolai entered the Moscow Engineering Physics Institute, known for its excellent school of theoretical physics. After graduating from the institute in 1950, he entered its graduate school at the department of theoretical physics. In the same year, Basov married Ksenia Tikhonovna Nazarova, a physicist from MEPhI. They had two sons.

Since 1949, Nikolai Gennadievich has been working at the Physical Institute of the USSR Academy of Sciences. His first position was as an engineer at the vibration laboratory, headed by academician M.A. Leontovich. He then became a junior researcher in the same laboratory. In those years, a group of young physicists under the leadership of Prokhorov began research in a new scientific direction - molecular spectroscopy. At the same time, a fruitful collaboration between Basov and Prokhorov began, which led to fundamental work in the field of quantum electronics.

Prokhorov recalled: “For us, it all started with radiospectroscopy of molecules, which I myself was actively involved in at the Lebedev Physical Institute since 1951. Nikolai Basov became one of my first and closest collaborators at that time. I am connected with him for about ten years of intense and fruitful collaboration, which ended with the creation of a molecular generator based on a beam of ammonia molecules at the Laboratory of Oscillations of the Lebedev Physical Institute.”

In 1952, Prokhorov and Basov presented the first results of a theoretical analysis of the effects of amplification and generation of electromagnetic radiation by quantum systems, and later they studied the physics of these processes.

Having developed a whole series of new types of radio spectroscopes, Prokhorov’s laboratory began to obtain very rich spectroscopic information on the separation of structures, dipole moments and force constants of molecules, nuclear moments, etc.

Analyzing the extreme accuracy of microwave molecular frequency standards, which is determined primarily by the width of the molecular absorption line, Prokhorov and Basov proposed using the effect of sharp narrowing of the line in molecular beams.

“However, the transition to molecular beams,” writes I.G. Bebikh and V.S. Semenov, - while solving the problem of line width, created a new difficulty - the intensity of the absorption line sharply decreased due to the low overall density of molecules in the beam. The absorption signal is the result of induced transitions between two energy states of molecules with the absorption of a quantum during the transition from the lower level to the upper (induced, stimulated absorption) and with the emission of a quantum during the transition from the upper level down (induced, stimulated emission). Consequently, it is proportional to the difference in the populations of the lower and upper energy levels of the quantum transition of molecules being studied. For two levels separated by an energy distance equal to a quantum of microwave radiation, this population difference constitutes only a small part of the total particle density due to the thermal population of levels in an equilibrium state at ordinary temperatures according to the Boltzmann distribution. It was then that the idea was proposed that by artificially changing the population of levels in a molecular beam, i.e. By creating nonequilibrium conditions (or, as it were, your own “temperature” that determines the population of these levels), you can significantly change the intensity of the absorption line. If you sharply reduce the number of molecules at the upper working level, sorting such particles from the beam, for example, using a non-uniform electric field, then the intensity of the absorption line increases. It is as if an ultra-low temperature has been created in the beam. If, in this way, molecules are removed from the lower operating level, then amplification due to stimulated emission will be observed in the system. If the gain exceeds the losses, then the system is self-excited at a frequency that is still determined by the frequency of a given quantum transition of the molecule. In a molecular beam, population inversion will be carried out, i.e. a negative temperature has been created. This is how the idea of ​​a molecular generator arose, outlined in the well-known series of classical joint works by A.M. Prokhorov and N.G. Basov 1952–1955.

This is where quantum electronics began its development - one of the most fruitful and fastest-growing areas of modern science and technology.

Essentially, the main, fundamental step in creating quantum generators was to prepare a nonequilibrium radiating quantum system with population inversion (with negative temperature) and place it in an oscillatory system with positive feedback - a cavity resonator. It could and should have been done by scientists who combined the experience of studying quantum mechanical systems and radiophysical culture. Further extension of these principles to optical and other bands was inevitable.”

The fundamental proposal was by Prokhorov and Basov on a new method for obtaining population inversion in three-level (and more complex) systems by saturating one of the transitions under the influence of powerful auxiliary radiation. This is the so-called three-level method, which later also received the name optical pumping method.

It was he who allowed Fabry-Perot to form a real scientific basis for the development of other ranges in 1958. This was successfully used in 1960 by T. Mayman when creating the first ruby ​​laser.

Even while working on molecular oscillators, Basov came up with the idea of ​​​​the possibility of extending the principles and methods of quantum radiophysics to the optical frequency range. Since 1957, he has been searching for ways to create optical quantum generators - lasers.

In 1959, Basov, together with B.M. Vul and Yu.M. Popov prepared the work “Quantum mechanical semiconductor generators and amplifiers of electromagnetic oscillations.” It proposed using population inversion in semiconductors, obtained in a pulsed electric field, to create a laser.

Independently from Basov and on the same topic, the American physicist Charles Hard Townes worked at Columbia University. He called his creation a maser. Townes proposed filling the resonance cavity with excited ammonia molecules. This produced an incredible amplification of microwaves with a frequency of 24,000 megahertz.

In 1964, Basov, Prokhorov and Townes became Nobel Prize laureates, which they were awarded for fundamental research in the field of quantum electronics, leading to the creation of masers and lasers.

Townes wrote in his article “Cosmic Masers and Lasers”: “N.G. Basov and A.M. Prokhorov in the USSR and the author of these lines in the USA were the first to make serious attempts to develop a device for obtaining amplification during stimulated emission, i.e. create devices that in our time are called masers and lasers. Their ideas and developments in the field of quantum electronics played a decisive role in the development of this field in both science and technology. However, as it turned out later, these phenomena could also be detected outside the Earth, since they took place on space objects for millions and millions of years.”

The fruitful collaboration between Basov and Prokhorov did not end there. They have developed various types of lasers, including high-power short-pulse and multi-channel lasers. Basov not only was engaged in fundamental research in the field of generators and amplifiers, but also theoretically substantiated the use of laser technology in thermonuclear fusion.

Among Basov's scientific works are those devoted to the optical properties of semiconductors and superconductivity, molecular plasma and synchrotron radiation, cosmic rays, pulsating neutrons and even problems of general relativity.

From 1978 to 1990, Basov was chairman of the board of the All-Union Society "Znanie". In 1977 he was awarded the Gold Medal. A. Volta. In 1989, Basov received the USSR State Prize, and a year later - the Gold Medal. M.V. Lomonosov.

Prokhorov became a professor at Moscow State University in 1957.

Alexander Mikhailovich is one of the founders of a number of areas of modern science and technology, such as laser physics, radio spectroscopy, quantum electronics, fiber optics, laser technology and technology, the applied use of lasers in medicine, biology, industry, and communications.

Since the formation of the Institute of General Physics of the Russian Academy of Sciences, he has been the permanent director and founder of one of the largest scientific schools in Russia. Prokhorov was elected president of the Academy of Natural Sciences.

In 1982, Alexander Mikhailovich created and headed the International Journal of Laser Physics. For more than thirty years he was the editor-in-chief of the Great Soviet (now Russian) Encyclopedia. Since 1997, Alexander Mikhailovich has led the multinational project “Baltic Silicon Valley”.

N.G. Basov died on July 1, 2001, A.M. Prokhorov - January 8, 2002. All their lives they were close, and their graves are also nearby - in Moscow at the Novodevichy cemetery.

December 14, 1922Nikolai Basov, one of the creators of the laser, winner of the Nobel Prize in Physics for 1964, was born.

Private bussiness

Nikolai Gennadievich Basov (1922—2001) born in the city of Usman near Lipetsk in the family of a professor at the Forestry Institute. In 1927, the family moved to Voronezh, where Nikolai graduated from school in 1941. At the same time he was drafted into the army and sent to study at the Kuibyshev Medical Academy (now Samara State Medical University). Two years later, paramedic Nikolai Basov was sent to the active army and was assigned to the 1st Ukrainian Front. Until the end of the war he served as a physician's assistant. After demobilization in December 1945, he entered the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology.

In 1948, in parallel with his studies, he began working as a laboratory assistant at the Physical Institute of the USSR Academy of Sciences. After receiving his diploma, he entered graduate school, defended his candidate's dissertation in 1953, and three years later his doctoral dissertation, devoted to the study of a molecular generator, where ammonia was used as the active medium. In 1954, the construction of such a generator was reported independently of each other by N. G. Basov and A. M. Prokhorov in the USSR, as well as by C. Townes, J. Gordon and H. Zeiger in the USA.

In 1958-1972, Basov was deputy director of the Lebedev Physical Institute, and then until 1989 he was the director of this institute. In 1959, together with Alexander Prokhorov, he received the Lenin Prize for research into molecular oscillators and paramagnetic amplifiers.

In 1962 he became a corresponding member of the USSR Academy of Sciences. In 1963, he took part in the creation of the first semiconductor laser based on gallium arsenide (GaAs). Then he took up optoelectronics. The main directions of further work were diode lasers made on the basis of various materials.

In 1964, Basov, together with Alexander Prokhorov (Physical Institute of the USSR Academy of Sciences) and Charles Townes from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (USA), received the Nobel Prize in Physics for developing the operating principle of a laser and maser.

In 1966 he became a full member of the USSR Academy of Sciences, the following year he was elected a member of the Presidium of the USSR Academy of Sciences and a member of the Academy of Sciences of the GDR.

In the late 1960s, he was engaged in research on the creation of gas-dynamic lasers. In the 1970s, under his leadership, a chemical laser was built using a mixture of deuterium, fluorine and carbon dioxide.

In the late 1970s, Basov, together with his colleagues, experimentally proved the possibility of accelerating chemical reactions when reagents are exposed to infrared laser radiation.

Nikolai Basov was also involved in the popularization of science - he was the editor-in-chief of the journals “Science”, “Quantum Electronics”, “Nature”, “Kvant”, and in 1978-1990 he headed the All-Union Educational Society “Knowledge”.

Basov and his wife Ksenia Nazarova died in 2001. They are survived by two sons - Gennady (born in 1954) and Dmitry (born in 1963, professor of physics at the University of California at San Diego).

What is he famous for?

Nikolay Basov

One of the main inventors of lasers and masers, the founder of the most important area of ​​modern physics - quantum electronics.

In 1952, together with A. M. Prokhorov, he established the principle of amplification and generation of electromagnetic radiation by quantum systems, which made it possible to create the first quantum generator (maser) in 1954. In 1955, Basov and Prokhorov proposed a three-level scheme for creating an inverse (reverse) population of energy levels. This scheme has found wide application in lasers and masers.

These works, together with the research of the American physicist Charles Townes, laid the foundation for a new direction in physics - quantum electronics. For the development of a new principle for generating and amplifying radio waves, Basov, Prokhorov and Townes were awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics for 1964.

What you need to know

The money allocated for the Nobel Prize did not reach Basov and Prokhorov. The bonus ended up in Vnesheconombank, and it was impossible to extract it from there. Half of the money was then intended for Townes, and the second half was equally divided between Basov and Prokhorov, which amounted to 10 thousand dollars each.

In the last years of his life, Basov often complained about the lack of funds allocated for research in the field of laser physics. “We must create at least minimal conditions in our laboratories, otherwise our theoretical developments will be translated into specific devices abroad. These devices often remain there,” he said in 2000 at a meeting of the Russian Academy of Sciences on the use of lasers in medicine. His son Dmitry continued his father’s work, but in the USA, becoming a professor of physics at the University of San Diego.

Direct speech:

“I’ll tell you about one of his foresights. In 1961, that is, virtually immediately after the creation of the laser, Nikolai Gennadievich was asked to make a report at a meeting of the Presidium of the Academy of Sciences about lasers and the prospects of this area. And, speaking, he said that the information capacity of a communication channel in the optical range - that is, on laser radiation - will soon be so gigantic that it will be possible to cover the whole world with such an information network and all six billion of the planet's population will be able to communicate with each other via telephone or other means. And this was said 50 years ago! To be honest, at that time we had no idea how such a miracle could be created - transmitting signals, that is, information via a laser beam. Well, we tried to guess - even in space, for example, you can see each other and transmit signals, but how to do this in Earth conditions? It was fantastic!

However, the prediction came true. Indeed, later it became possible to create thin glass fibers, approximately one hundred microns in diameter, including the cladding, which practically do not absorb laser radiation. That is, the signal can be transmitted over long distances - now we call it “fiber optic communication lines.” This is television, this is the Internet: please, transfer any library, printed or video products, any works of art to another part of the planet. I think even this achievement alone—the creation of the World Wide Web—is already enough to appreciate the importance of the laser for humanity.” — Academician Oleg Krokhinabout Basov .

“Nikolai Gennadievich Basov, at some meeting at the Academy of Sciences, said that the 19th century was the century of electricity, and the 20th century was the century of quantum electronics and lasers. And Zhores Ivanovich Alferov, also a Nobel laureate, with whom Nikolai Gennadievich was friends, in one of his speeches said that over 110 years of Nobel Prizes being awarded, if you build ratings, quantum electronics and laser physics are discoveries that are included in the top ten. Lasers have become one of the most important elements of modern civilization.” - Right there.

5 facts about Nikolai Basov

• In the 1960s and 1970s he was involved in the development of military laser systems. The mission was to shoot down enemy satellites and ballistic missiles. However, it turned out that the existing power generators do not allow this to be done.
• The scientist developed the physical basis for creating quantum frequency standards. A number of his works are devoted to the issues of propagation and interaction of laser pulses with matter. He proposed using a laser for controlled thermonuclear fusion and plasma heating. Basov also studied the capabilities of the laser as a catalyst for chemical reactions. He was the initiator of many studies on nonlinear optics.
• Basov believed that the laser could help combat global warming by releasing excess energy into space.
• He received the most prestigious awards in the scientific world both during Soviet times and after the collapse of the USSR. Laureate of five Orders of Lenin. Since 1991, he worked as a member of the expert council under the Chairman of the Russian government, and in 1997 he was awarded the Order of Merit for the Fatherland, II degree.
• According to physicist Zhores Alferov, the technological and social progress of the twentieth century was determined by three discoveries in the field of physics. This is the fission of uranium, discovered by German scientists Hann and Strassmann in 1938. The second is the invention of transistors in 1947 by D. Bartin and V. Brattain, which prepared the computer revolution. And third, the discovery of the laser-maser principle by N. Basov, A. Prokhorov and C. Townes, which served as an impetus for the development of many military and peaceful technologies. These are primarily semiconductor lasers and fiber optic communications.

Slide 2

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.

Slide 3

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.

Slide 4

Slide 5

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.

Slide 6

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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Slide 8

• 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.