Nikolai Gennadiyevich Basov (born 14.12.1922) is a Soviet physicist, one of the founders of quantum electronics, and an academician of the USSR Academy of Sciences (1966; a corresponding member from 1962). He was born in Voronezh. He graduated from the Moscow Engineering Physics Institute (1950). Since 1950 he has worked at the Physical Institute of the USSR Academy of Sciences (in 1958-72 as deputy director, from 1962 as head of the laboratory of quantum radiophysics and from 1973 as director), and from 1963 he has also been professor at the Moscow Engineering Physics Institute.
His work is in various fields of quantum radiophysics and its applications. He discovered the principle of the 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, carried out studies on the formation and amplification of powerful light pulses and on the interaction of powerful light radiation with matter, developed a laser method of heating plasma for controlled thermonuclear fusion, carried out a substantial body of research on high-power gas quantum generators and on chemical lasers, and put forward new ideas for the use of lasers in optoelectronics.
Together with A. M. Prokhorov he built in 1954 the first quantum generator using a beam of ammonia molecules, and in 1955 he proposed the three-level method of producing non-equilibrium quantum systems, which is widely used in quantum generators and amplifiers in the radio and optical ranges. This work, and the research of the American physicist C. Townes, began the development of a new scientific field, quantum electronics. For their work on quantum generators Basov and Prokhorov were awarded the Lenin Prize in 1959, and in 1964 they, together with C. Townes, 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. The idea of using semiconductors in lasers is Basov's, and he developed methods of producing various types of semiconductor lasers. In 1961 he drew attention to the possibility of using lasers in thermonuclear fusion, and his later work led to the creation of a new direction within the problem of controlled thermonuclear reactions, the methods of laser thermonuclear fusion. In 1963 he gave the basis for new methods of the thermal excitation of laser systems; somewhat later he began a series of studies on chemical quantum generators and carried out a number of studies on the stimulation of chemical reactions by laser radiation.
Twice Hero of Socialist Labour (1969, 1982). He created a school of physicists. A member of several foreign academies of sciences. Chairman of the board of the Znanie Society (since 1978) and editor-in-chief of the journals Kvantovaya Elektronika and Priroda. The A. Volta gold medal (1977).