Editing Nikolay Basov (section)

==Professional career==
Basov graduated from [[Moscow Engineering Physics Institute]] (MEPhI) in 1950. He then held a professorship at MEPhI and also worked in the [[Lebedev Physical Institute]] (LPI), where he defended a dissertation for the ''[[Candidate of Sciences]]'' degree (equivalent to [[PhD]]) in 1953 and a dissertation for the ''[[Doctor of Sciences]]'' degree in 1956. Basov was the Director of the LPI in 1973–1988. He was elected as  [[corresponding member]] of the [[USSR Academy of Sciences]] ([[Russian Academy of Sciences]] since 1991) in 1962 and  [[academician|Full Member]] of the Academy in 1966.<ref name=brit/> In 1967, he was elected a Member of the Presidium of the Academy (1967—1990), and since 1990 he was the councillor of the Presidium of the USSR Academy of Sciences. In 1971 he was elected a Member of the [[German Academy of Sciences Leopoldina]].<ref>[http://www.leopoldina.org/en/members/list-of-members/member/1815/ List of Members]. Leopoldina.org. Retrieved on 30 July 2020.</ref> He was Honorary President and Member of the International Academy of Science, Munich.<ref>International Academy of Science (1989) [http://www.ias-icsd.org/resources/ICSD-IAS-Founding-Members-1989.pdf Selection of IAS-ICSD Founding Members]. </ref><ref>[http://www.ias-icsd.org/history.html History – International Academy of Science, Munich]. Ias-icsd.org. Retrieved on 30 July 2020.</ref> He was the head of the laboratory of quantum radiophysics at the LPI until his death in 2001.<ref name=i-lasers/>

In the early 1950s Basov and Prokhorov developed theoretical grounds for creation of a molecular oscillator and constructed such an oscillator based on [[ammonia]]. Later this oscillator became known as [[maser]]. They also proposed a method for the production of [[population inversion]] using inhomogeneous electric and magnetic fields. Their results were presented at a national conference in 1952 and published in 1954. Basov then proceeded to the development of laser, an analogous generator of coherent light. In 1955 he designed a [[three-level laser]], and in 1959 suggested constructing a [[semiconductor laser]], which he built with collaborators in 1963.<ref name=brit/> Basov  with co-workers proposed [[Disk laser]] in 1966  <ref name="Basov, N G 1966">{{cite journal |title=Semiconductor lasers with radiating mirrors
|journal=IEEE Journal of Quantum Electronics|volume=2 |issue=4 |pages=9 B4 |year=1966|last1= Basov |first1=N G|last2=Bogdankevich |first2= OV|last3=Grasiuk |first3= AZ|doi=10.1109/JQE.1966.1073948|bibcode=1966IJQE....2Q.154B }}</ref> and realized experimentally the thin disk [[active mirror]] semiconductor lasers.<ref name="Bogdankevich,O V 1973">{{cite journal |title=Semiconductor electron-beam-pumped lasers of the radiating mirror type 
|journal=IEEE Journal of Quantum Electronics|volume=9 |issue=2 |pages=342–347|year=1973|last1=Bogdankevich |first1= OV|last2=Darznek |first2= SA|last3= Pechenov|first3= A N|last4=Vasiliev|first4= BI|last5=Zverev |first5= MM|doi=10.1109/JQE.1973.1077470|bibcode=1973IJQE....9..342B }}</ref>
He developed with colleaguaes the first nonlinear theory of [[coherent addition]] of laser sets.
<ref name="Basov, N G 1965">{{cite book |doi=10.1117/12.160374 |s2cid=110333595 |chapter=Diffraction synchronization of lasers |title=CIS Selected Papers: High-Power Multibeam Lasers and Their Phase Locking |date=1993 |editor-last1=Lebedev |editor-first1=Fedor V. |last1=Basov |first1=Nikolai G. |last2=Belenov |first2=E. M. |last3=Letokhov |first3=Vladilen S. |series=Proceedings of SPIE |volume=2109 |pages=134–144 |editor-first2=Anatoly P. |editor-last2=Napartovich }}</ref> N.G.Basov encouraged the researchers in [[nonlinear optics]] in [[Lebedev Institute]] who discovered the [[optical phase conjugation]]. 
<ref name="Okulov, A YU 1980J">{{cite journal |title=Connection Between the Wave Fronts of the Reflected and Exciting Light in Stimulated Mandel'shtem-Brillouin Scattering |journal=Sov. Phys. JETP Lett.|volume=15 |issue=6 |pages=109 |year=1972
|last1= Zel'dovich |first1= B Ya
|last2= Popovichev |first2=V I
|last3= Ragul'skii |first3=V V
|last4= Faizullov |first4= F S 
|bibcode=1972JETPL..15..109Z}}</ref>
Together with [[Lebedev Institute]] researchers he realized the robust method of the phase-locking of laser arrays via  [[optical phase conjugation]] in [[Stimulated Brillouin scattering]].<ref name="Basov, N G  1980">{{cite journal |title=Laser interferometer with wavefront reversing mirrors
|journal=Sov. Phys. JETP|volume=52 |issue=5 |pages=847 |year=1980 
|last1= Basov |first1=N G
|last2= Zubarev |first2=I G
|last3= Mironov |first3=A B
|last4= Michailov |first4= S I
|last5= Okulov |first5= A Yu
|bibcode=1980ZhETF..79.1678B}}</ref> 
<ref name="Boyd, R W 1997">{{cite journal |title=Brillouin-enhanced four-wave-mixing vector phase-conjugate mirror with beam-combining capability
|journal=Optics Letters|volume=22 |issue=6 |pages=360–362  |year=1997 
|last1= Bowers |first1=M W
|last2= Boyd |first2=R W
|last3= Hankla |first3=A K
|doi=10.1364/OL.22.000360|pmid=18183201|bibcode=1997OptL...22..360B|s2cid=25530526 }}</ref> 

Basov's contributions to the development of the laser and maser, which won him the [[Nobel Prize]] in 1964, also led to new missile defense initiatives.<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=fnqN-1UaNI4C "Soviet ballistic missile defense and the Western alliance"], David Scott Yost. Harvard University Press, 1988. {{ISBN|0-674-82610-8}}, {{ISBN|978-0-674-82610-6}}. p. 58</ref>

He died on 1 July, 2001 at [[Moscow]] and was buried at [[Novodevichy Cemetery]].