Editing Pyotr Lebedev

{{Short description|Russian physicist (1866–1912)}}
{{Infobox scientist
| name              = Pyotr Nikolaevich Lebedev
| image             = Lebedev petr nikolaevich.jpg
| caption           =
| birth_date        = {{Birth date|1866|2|24|df=y}}
| birth_place       = [[Moscow]], [[Russian Empire]]
| nationality       = [[Russians|Russian]]
| death_date        = {{Death date and age|1912|3|1|1866|2|24|df=y}}
| death_place       = Moscow, Russian Empire
| field             = [[Physicist]]
| work_institution  = [[Moscow State University]]
| alma_mater        = [[University of Strasbourg]]
| doctoral_advisor  = [[August Kundt]]
| doctoral_students = [[P. P. Lazarev]]
| known_for         = Demonstration of [[radiation pressure]]
| prizes            = 
| footnotes         =  
}}
'''Pyotr Nikolaevich Lebedev''' ({{Langx|ru|Пётр Никола́евич Ле́бедев}}; 24 February 1866 – 1 March 1912) was a Russian physicist. His name was also [[transliteration|transliterated]] as Peter Lebedew<ref name=Lebedew1901/> and Peter Lebedev.<ref>
{{cite book
 |editor-last=Stavrou |editor-first=T. G.
 |year=1969
 |title=Russia Under the Last Tsar
 |url=https://archive.org/details/russiaunderlastt00stav |url-access=registration |page=[https://archive.org/details/russiaunderlastt00stav/page/170 170]
 |publisher=[[University of Minnesota Press]]
 |isbn=978-0816605149
}}</ref> Lebedev was the creator of the first scientific school in [[Russian Empire|Russia]].

==Career==
Lebedev made his [[doctoral degree]] in [[Strasbourg]] under the supervision of [[August Kundt]] in 1887&ndash;1891. In 1891, he started working in [[Moscow State University]] in the group of [[Aleksandr Stoletov|Alexander Stoletov]]. There he made his famous experimental studies of electromagnetic waves.

Along with Indian physicist [[Jagadish Chandra Bose]] he was one of the first to investigate [[millimeter wave]]s, generating 50&nbsp;GHz (6&nbsp;mm) microwaves beginning in 1895 with a [[spark gap transmitter|spark oscillator]] made of two platinum cylinders 1.5&nbsp;cm long and 0.5&nbsp;diameter immersed in [[kerosene]] at the focus of a parabolic reflector, and detecting the waves with an iron-[[constantan]] [[thermocouple]] detector.<ref name="Sarkar">A. A. Kostenko, A. I. Nosich, P. F. Goldsmith, "Historical background and development of Soviet quasioptics at near-millimeter and sub-millimeter wavelengths" in {{cite book
 | last1  = Sarkar
 | first1 = T. K.
 | last2  = Mailloux
 | first2 = Robert
 | last3  = Oliner
 | first3 = Arthur A.
 | title  = History of Wireless
 | publisher = John Wiley and Sons
 | date   = 2006
 | location = 
 | pages  = 478–488
 | language = 
 | url    = https://archive.org/stream/HistoryOfWireless#page/n499/mode/2up
 | doi    = 
 | id     = 
 | isbn   = 0471783013
 | author-link1=Tapan Sarkar
 | author-link3=Arthur A. Oliner
 }}</ref>

With this apparatus, he extended the work of [[Heinrich Hertz]] to higher frequencies, duplicating classical [[optics]] experiments using [[quasioptical]] components such as lenses, [[Prism (optics)|prism]]s and [[quarter-wave plate]]s made of [[sulfur]] and wire [[diffraction grating]]s to demonstrate [[refraction]], [[diffraction]], [[double refraction]], [[birefringence]] and [[Polarization (waves)|polarization]] of millimeter waves.

He was the first to measure the [[Radiation pressure|pressure of light]] on a solid body in 1899. The discovery was announced at the [[International Congress of Physics]] during Paris [[Exposition Universelle (1900)|Exposition Universelle]],<ref>P. Lebedew,“Les forces de Maxwell-Bartoli dues à la pression de la lumière” Rapports présentés au Congrès International de Physique 2, 133 (1900).</ref> and became the first quantitative confirmation of [[Maxwell's equations|Maxwell's theory of electromagnetism]].<ref name="Lebedew1901">
{{cite journal
 |last=Lebedew |first=P.
 |year=1901
 |title=Untersuchungen über die Druckkräfte des Lichtes
 |journal=[[Annalen der Physik]]
 |volume=311 |issue=11 |pages=433–458
 |bibcode=1901AnP...311..433L
 |doi=10.1002/andp.19013111102
|url=https://zenodo.org/record/1424005
 }}</ref>

An English translation of the paper as well as a historical review is in.<ref>{{Citation |last=Masalov |first=Anatoly V. |title=First Experiments on Measuring Light Pressure I (Pyotr Nikolaevich Lebedev) |date=2019 |work=Quantum Photonics: Pioneering Advances and Emerging Applications |pages=425–453 |editor-last=Boyd |editor-first=Robert W. |url=https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-98402-5_12 |access-date=2024-04-16 |place=Cham |publisher=Springer International Publishing |language=en |doi=10.1007/978-3-319-98402-5_12 |isbn=978-3-319-98402-5 |editor2-last=Lukishova |editor2-first=Svetlana G. |editor3-last=Zadkov |editor3-first=Victor N.|url-access=subscription }}</ref>

In 1909, he reported that the pressure of light on gas is in agreement with predictions based on Maxwell's theory.<ref name=":0">{{Cite journal |last=Khramov |first=Yu A |date=1986-12-31 |title=Petr Nikolaevich Lebedev and his school (On the 120th anniversary of the year of his birth) |url=https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1070/PU1986v029n12ABEH003609 |journal=Soviet Physics Uspekhi |volume=29 |issue=12 |pages=1127–1134 |doi=10.1070/PU1986v029n12ABEH003609 |issn=0038-5670|url-access=subscription }}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Lebedew |first=Peter |date=1910-06-01 |title=The Pressure of Light on Gases |url=https://adsabs.harvard.edu/full/1910apj....31..385l |journal=The Astrophysical Journal |volume=31 |pages=385 |doi=10.1086/141769 |issn=0004-637X}}</ref>

== Later life ==
In 1901, he became a professor at [[Moscow State University]], however, he quit the University in 1911, protesting against the politics of the [[Ministry of National Education (Russian Empire)|Ministry of Education]]. In the same year, he received an invitation to become a professor in [[Stockholm]], which he rejected. He died the next year of a hereditary heart condition.<ref name=":0" />

== Legacy ==
The [[Lebedev Physical Institute]] in Moscow and the [[Lebedev (crater)|lunar crater Lebedev]] are named after him.

==See also==
*[[Pyotr Lebedev (research vessel)|''Pyotr Lebedev'' (research vessel)]]

==References==
{{Reflist}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lebedev, Pyotr}}
[[Category:1866 births]]
[[Category:1912 deaths]]
[[Category:Physicists from the Russian Empire]]
[[Category:Academic staff of Moscow State University]]
[[Category:Saint Petersburg State Institute of Technology alumni]]
[[Category:Russian scientists]]