Nicolay G. Basov
Biography
Nikolay Gennadiyevich Basov was born on December, 14, 1922 in the
small town of Usman near Voronezh, the son of Gennady Fedorovich Basov
and Zinaida Andreevna Molchanova. His father was a professor of the Voronezh
Forest Institute and devoted his life to investigation of the influence
of forest belts on underground waters and on surface drainage.
After finishing secondary school in 1941 in Voronezh Basov was
called up for military service and directed to the Kuibyshev
Military Medical Academy. In 1943 he left the Academy with the
qualification of a military doctor's assistant. He served in the
Soviet Army and took part in the Second World War in the area
of the First Ukranian Front. In December 1945, he was demobilized
and entered the Moscow Institute of Physical Engineers where he
studied theoretical and experimental physics.
From 1950 to 1953 he was a postgraduate student of the Moscow
Institute of Physical Engineers. At that time, Basov was working
on his thesis at the P.N. Lebedev Physical Institute of the Academy of
Sciences, U.S.S.R., under the guidance of Professor M.A.
Leontovich and Professor A.M. Prochorov.
In 1950 Basov joined the P.N. Lebedev Physical Institute, where
at present he is vicedirector 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 1952 Dr. Basov began to work in the field of quantum
radiophysics. He made various attempts (firstly, theoretical and
then experimental) to design and build oscillators (together with
A.M. Prochorov). 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 A.N. Oraevsky, V.V. Nikitin, G.M.
Strakhovsky, V.S. Zuev and others, Dr Basov studied the
dependence of the oscillator frequency on different parameters
for a series of ammonia spectral lines, proposed methods of
increasing the frequency stability by means of slowing down
molecules, proposed methods of producing slow molecules,
investigated the operation of oscillators with resonators in
series, realized phase stabilization of klystron frequency by
means of molecular oscillators, studied transition processes in
molecular oscillators, and designed an oscillator utilizing a
beam of deuterium ammonia. 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 after A. Javan's proposal, the possibility of their
realization in the gas media was also investigated. In 1958
together with B.M. Vul and Yu.M. Popov he investigated the
conditions for production of states with a negative temperature
in semiconductors, and suggested utilization of a pulse breakdown
for that purpose. In 1961 together with O.N. Krokhin and Yu.M.
Popov, Basov proposed three different methods for the obtaining
of a negative temperature state in semiconductors in the presence
of direct and indirect transitions (optical excitation,
utilization of a beam of fast electrons and injection of carriers
through a degenerated p-n junction).
As a result of a cooperative effort with B.M. Vul and
collaborators the injection semiconductor lasers utilizing
crystals of gallium arsenide were made at the beginning of
1963.
In 1964 semiconductor lasers with electronic excitation have been
made (together with O.V. Bogdankevich and A.N. Devyatkov); and
somewhat later, lasers with optical excitation were constructed
(together with A.Z. Grasiuk and V.A. Katulin). For these
achievements a group of scientists of Lebedev Physical Institute
was awarded the Lenin Prize for 1964.
Beginning from 1961 Dr. Basov (together with V.S. Zuev, P.G.
Krinkov, V.S. Lctokhov et al.) carried out theoretical and
experimental research in the field of powerful lasers. There have
been found the ways of obtaining powerful short laser pulses. The
nature of appearance of such pulses in quantum oscillators and
their propagation in quantum amplifiers have been investigated.
This work resulted in the development of high-power single-pulse
Nd-glass lasers with 30 J energy and 2*10-11 sec pulse
duration (in 1968 together with P.G. Krinkov, Yu.V. Senatsky
et al.) and multichannel lasers with energy 103 J within
10-9 sec (in 1971 in collaboration with G.V. Sklizkov
et al.).
In 1962 N. Basov and O.N. Krokhin investigated the possibility of
laser radiation usage for the obtaining of thermonuclear plasmas.
In 1968 Basov and his associates (P.G. Kriukov, Yu.V. Senatsky,
S.D. Zakharov) have succeeded in observing for the first time
neutron emission in the laser-produced deuterium plasmas. The
spectra of multicharged ions CaXVI, FeXXIII, K XIX and others
have also been observed (together with O.N. Krokhin, S.L.
Mandelshtam, G.V. Sklizkov). There has been developed a theory of
picosecond pulse formation (together with V.S. Letokhov). In the
same year Basov and his associate A.N. Oraevsky proposed a method
of the thermal laser excitation. Further theoretical
considerations of this method by Basov, A.N. Oraevsky and V.A.
Sheglov encouraged the development of the socalled gasdynamic
lasers.
In 1963 Dr. Basov and his colleagues (V.V. Nikitin, Yu.M. Popov,
V.N. Morozov) 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. At present a logic structure of the
multichannel optoelectronic systems producing 1010
operations per second for the optical data processing is under
the development.
The studies of the radiation of the condensed rare gases under
the action of a powerful electron beam have been initiated in
1966 by Basov and his collaborators (V.A. Danilychev, Yu.M.
Popov), and they were the first to obtain in 1970 the laser
emission in the vacuum ultraviolet range.
In 1968 Basov ( in cooperation with O.V. Bogdankevich and A.S.
Nasibov) made a proposal for a laser projection TV. About the
same time Dr. Basov (together with V.V. Nikitin) began the
studies of the frequency standard in the optical range (on the
basis of gas lasers). In 1970 they succeeded in realizing a gas
laser stabilized in the methane absorption line with frequency
stability 10-11.
In 1969 Basov (together with E.M. Belenov and V.V. Nikitin)
hypothe sized that to obtain the frequency standard with the
stability 10-12-10-13 a ring laser can be
used with a nonlinear absorption cell.
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 same year
Basov (in cooperation with E.M. Belenov, V.A. Danilychev and A.F.
Suchkov) proposed and developed experimentally an elion
(electrical pumping of ionized compressed gases) method of
gaslaser excitation. Using this method for a CO2 and
N2 mixture compressed to 25 atm., they achieved a
great increase of power of the gas laser volume unit compared to
the typical low pressure CO2 lasers.
In the end of 1970 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.
In 1959 Dr. Basov was awarded the Lenin Prize together with A. M.
Prochorov for the investigation leading to the creation of
molecular oscillators and paramagnetic amplifiers. In 1962 Dr.
Basov was elected a corresponding member of the Academy of
Sciences of the U.S.S.R.; in 1966, a member of the Academy; in
1967, a member of the Presidium of the Academy of Sciences of the
U.S.S.R., and a foreign member of the German Academy of Sciences
in Berlin; and in 1971, a foreign member of the German Academy
"Leopoldina".
Dr. Basov is Editor-in-chief of the Soviet scientific journals
Priroda. (Nature) and "Kvantovaya Elektornika" (Quantum
Electronics); he is also a member of the Editorial Board of "Il
Nuovo Cimento".
In 1970 Dr. Basov was awarded the rank of Hero of Socialist
Labour. Dr. Basov is a member of the Soviet Committee of the
Defence of Peace and a member of the World Peace Council.
Nikolai Basov married in 1950. His wife, Ksenia Tikhonovna
Basova, is also a physicist and is with the Department of General
Physics of the Moscow Institute of Physical Engineers. They have
two sons: Gennady (born 1954) and Dmitry (born 1963).
From Nobel Lectures, Physics 1963-1970, Elsevier Publishing Company, Amsterdam, 1972
This autobiography/biography was first published in the book series Les Prix Nobel. It was later edited and republished in Nobel Lectures. To cite this document, always state the source as shown above.
Nicolay G. Basov died on July 1, 2001.
Copyright © The Nobel Foundation 1964