Aleksandr M. Prokhorov

Aleksandr Mikhailovich Prokhorov was born on July 11th, 1916, in Australia. After the October Revolution he went in 1923 with his parents to the Soviet Union.

In 1934 Alexander Prochorov entered the Physics Department of the Leningrad State University. He attended lectures on quantum mechanics, theory of relativity, on general physics, spectroscopy and on molecular physics. After graduating in 1939 he became a postgraduate student of the P.N. Lebedev Physical Institute in Moscow, in the laboratory of oscillations. There he started to study the problems of propagation of radio waves.

In 1946 he defended his thesis on the theme Theory of Stabilization of Frequency of a Tube Oscillator in the Theory of a Small Parameter.

Starting in 1947, Prochorov carried out a study of the coherent radiation of electrons in the synchrotron in the region of centimetre waves. As a result of these investigations he wrote and defended in 1951 his Ph.D. thesis a "Coherent Radiation of Electrons in the Synchrotron Accelerator".

Starting from 1950 being assistant chief of the laboratory, Prochorov began to investigate on a wide scale the question of radiospectroscopy and, somewhat later, of quantum electronics. He organized a group of young scientists interested in the subjects.

In 1959 when Prochorov has already been the head of the lab, the laboratory of radio astronomy was organized from one of the departments of the laboratory of oscillations, and in 1962 another department was separated as the laboratory of quantum radiophysics (headed by Prof. N.G. Basov).

The investigations carried out by Basov and Prochorov in the field of microwave spectroscopy resulted in the idea of a molecular oscillator. They developed theoretical grounds for creation of a molecular oscillator and also constructed a molecular oscillator operating on ammonia. In 1955, Basov and Prochorov proposed a method for the production of a negative absorption which was called the pumping method.

From 1950 to 1955, Prochorov and his collaborators carried out research on molecular structures by the methods of microwave spectroscopy.

In 1955 Professor Prochorov began to develop the research on electronic paramagnetic resonance (EPR). A cycle of investigations of EPR spectra and relaxation times in various crystals was carried out.

In 1955, Prochorov studied with A.A. Manenkov the EPR spectra of ruby that made it possible to suggest it as a material for lasers in 1957. They designed and constructed masers using various materials and studied characteristics of the masers as well. This research was done in cooperation with the laboratory of radio spectroscopy of the Institute of Nuclear Physics of the Moscow University; this laboratory was organized by Prochorov in 1957. One of the masers constructed for a wavelength of 21 cm is used in the investigations of the radioastronomical station of the Physical Institute in Pushino.

In 1958 Prochorov suggested a laser for generation off infrared waves. As a resonator it was proposed to use a new type of cavity which was later called "the cavity of an open type". Practically speaking, it is Fabry-Perot’s interferometer. Similar cavities are widely used in lasers.

At present Prochorov's principal scientific interests lie in the field of solid lasers and their utilization for physical purposes, in particular for studies of multiquantum processes. In 1963, he suggested together with A.S. Selivanenko, a laser using two-quantum transitions.

Nicolay G. Basov

Nikolay Gennadiyevich Basov was born on December, 14, 1922 in a small town near Voronezh. His father was a professor of the Voronezh Forest Institute.

After finishing secondary school in 1941 in Voronezh Basov was called up for military service. In December 1945, he entered the Moscow Institute of Physical Engineers where he studied theoretical and experimental physics.

In 1950 Basov joined the P.N. Lebedev Physical Institute, where he was vice-director and head of the laboratory of quantum radiophysics. He is also a professor of the department of solid-state physics at the Moscow Institute of Physical Engineers.

In 1956 he defended his doctoral thesis on the theme "A Molecular Oscillator", which summed up the theoretical and experimental works on creation of a molecular oscillator utilizing an ammonia beam.

In 1955 Basov organized a group for the investigation of the frequency stability of molecular oscillators. Together with his pupils and collaborators Dr. Basov studied the dependence of the oscillator frequency on different parameters. In the result of these investigations the oscillators with a frequency stability of 10^-11 have been realized in 1962.

In 1957 Basov started to work on the design and construction of quantum oscillators in the optical range. A group of theorists and research workers began to study the possibilities for realization of quantum oscillators by means of semiconductors, and the possibility of their realization in the gas media was also investigated.

In 1964 semiconductor lasers with electronic excitation have been made and somewhat later, lasers with optical excitation were constructed. For these achievements a group of scientists of Lebedev Physical Institute was awarded the Lenin Prize for 1964.

Beginning from 1961 Dr. Basov carried out theoretical and experimental research in the field of powerful lasers.

In 1962 N.G. Basov and O.N. Krokhin investigated the possibility of laser radiation usage for the obtaining of thermonuclear plasmas. In 1968 Basov and his associates have succeeded in observing for the first time neutron emission in the laser-produced deuterium plasmas. In the same year N.G. Basov and his associate A.N. Oraevsky proposed a method of the thermal laser excitation. Further theoretical considerations of this method by N.G. Basov, A.N. Oraevsky and V.A. Sheglov encouraged the development of the so-called gasdynamic lasers.

In 1963 Dr. Basov and his colleagues began to work in the field of optoelectronics. They developed in 1967 a number of fast-operating logic elements on the basis of diode lasers.

A large contribution has been made by Dr. Basov to the field of chemical lasers. In 1970 under his guidance an original chemical laser was achieved which operates on a mixture of deuterium, F and CO₂ at the atmospheric pressure.

In the end of 1970 N.G. Basov (together with E.P. Markin, A.N. Oraevsky, A.V. Pankratov) presented experimental evidence for the stimulation of chemical reactions by the infrared laser radiation.