Alexander Mikhailovich Prokhorov[1] (bornAlexander Michael Prochoroff,Russian:Алекса́ндр Миха́йлович Про́хоров; 11 July 1916 – 8 January 2002) was an Australian-born Soviet-Russianphysicist and researcher whose work focused onquantum electronics. His most famous and well-known works were on optics and electromagnetic research. He was jointly awarded theNobel Prize in Physics in 1964 withCharles Hard Townes andNikolay Basov for his fundamental work that led to the development of thelaser and themaser.
Alexander Michael Prochoroff was born on 11 July 1916 at Russell Road,Peeramon,Queensland, Australia (now 322 Gadaloff Road,Butchers Creek, situated about 30 km fromAtherton), to Mikhail Ivanovich Prokhorov and Maria Ivanovna (née Mikhailova),Russian revolutionaries who had emigrated from Russia to escape repression by theTsarist regime. As a child he attended Butchers Creek State School.[2][3]
In 1934, Prokhorov entered theSaint Petersburg State University to study physics. He was a member of theKomsomol from 1930 to 1944, the youth wing of theCPSU. Prokhorov graduated with honors in 1939 and moved to Moscow to work at theLebedev Physical Institute, in the oscillations laboratory headed by academicianN. D. Papaleksi. His research there was devoted to propagation of radio waves in theionosphere.
At the onset ofWorld War II, in June 1941, he joined theRed Army. Prokhorov fought in the infantry, was wounded twice in battles, and was awarded three medals, including theMedal For Courage in 1946.[4] He was demobilized in 1944, a year before the end of WWII and eventual victory of the Allies.
Prokhorov returned to the Lebedev Institute where, in 1946, he defended his Ph.D. thesis on "Theory of Stabilization of Frequency of a Tube Oscillator in the Theory of a Small Parameter".[1][5][6]
In 1947, Prokhorov started working on coherent radiation emitted by electrons orbiting in a cyclicparticle accelerator called asynchrotron. He demonstrated that the emission is mostly concentrated in themicrowave spectral range. His results became the basis of hishabilitation on "Coherent Radiation of Electrons in the Synchrotron Accelerator", defended in 1951. By 1950, Prokhorov was assistant chief of the oscillation laboratory. Around that time, he formed a group of young scientists to work on radiospectroscopy of molecular rotations and vibrations, and later onquantum electronics. The group focused on a special class of molecules which have three (non-degenerate) moments of inertia. The research was conducted both on experiment and theory. In 1954, Prokhorov became head of the laboratory. Together withNikolay Basov he developed theoretical grounds for creation of amolecular oscillator and constructed such a device based onammonia. They also proposed a method for the production of population inversion using inhomogeneous electric and magnetic fields. Their results were first presented at a national conference in 1952, but not published until 1954–1955.[1][6]
In 1955, Prokhorov started his research in the field ofelectron paramagnetic resonance (EPR). He focused on relaxation times of ions of theiron group elements in a lattice ofaluminium oxide, but also investigated other, "non-optical", topics, such as magnetic phase transitions inDPPH.[7] In 1957, while studyingruby, achromium-doped variation of aluminium oxide, he came upon the idea of using this material as an active medium of alaser. As a new type of laser resonator, he proposed, in 1958, an "open type" cavity design, which is widely used today. In 1963, together with A. S. Selivanenko, he suggested a laser using two-quantum transitions. For his pioneering work on lasers and masers, in 1964, he received theNobel Prize in Physics shared withNikolay Basov andCharles Hard Townes.[1][6]
Prokhorov with KingGustaf VI Adolf and wife of Townes at the Nobel Prize banquet in 1964
In 1959, Prokhorov became a professor atMoscow State University – the most prestigious university in the Soviet Union; the same year, he was awarded theLenin Prize. In 1960, he became a member of theRussian Academy of Sciences and elected Academician in 1966. In 1967, he was awarded his firstOrder of Lenin (he received five of them during life, in 1967, 1969, 1975, 1981 and 1986). In 1968, he became vice-director of the Lebedev Institute and in 1971 took the position of Head of Laboratory of another prestigious Soviet institution, theMoscow Institute of Physics and Technology. In the same year, he was elected a member of theAmerican Academy of Arts and Sciences.[5] In 1983 he was elected a Member of theGerman Academy of Sciences Leopoldina.[8] Between 1982 and 1998, Prokhorov served as acting director of the General Physics Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences, and after 1998 as honorary director. After his death in 2002, the institute was renamed theA. M. Prokhorov General Physics Institute [Wikidata] of the Russian Academy of Sciences.[5][6] Prokhorov was a Member and one of the Honorary Presidents of the International Academy of Science, Munich and supported 1993 the foundation and development of the Russian Section of International Academy of Science, Moscow.[9][10]
In 1969, Prokhorov became aHero of Socialist Labour, the highest degree of distinction in the Soviet Union for achievements in national economy and culture. He received the second such award in 1986.[6] Starting in 1969, he was the chief editor of theGreat Soviet Encyclopedia. He was awarded theFrederic Ives Medal, the highest distinction of theOptical Society of America (OSA), in 2000[11] and became an Honorary OSA Member in 2001.[12] The same year, he was awarded theDemidov Prize by the government of the Russian Federation.[13]
Basov and Prokhorov with their wives in Stockholm in 1964
Both of Prokhorov's parents died during World War II. Prokhorov marriedgeographer Galina Shelepina in 1941, and they had a son, Kiril, born in 1945. Following his father, Kiril Prokhorov became a physicist in the field of optics and is currently leading a laser-related laboratory at the A. M. Prokhorov General Physics Institute.[4][18]
State Prize of the Russian Federation in science and technology (2003, posthumously) for the development of scientific and technological foundations of metrological support of measurements of length in the microwave and nanometer ranges and their application in microelectronics and nanotechnology
A. M. Prokhorov (Editor in Chief), J. M. Buzzi, P. Sprangle, K. Wille. Coherent Radiation Generation and Particle Acceleration, 1992,ISBN0-88318-926-7.Research Trends in Physics series published by the American Institute of Physics Press (presentlySpringer, New York)
V. Stefan and A. M. Prokhorov (Editors)Diamond Science and Technology Vol 1:Laser Diamond Interaction. Plasma Diamond Reactors (Stefan University Press Series on Frontiers in Science and Technology) 1999ISBN1-889545-23-6.
V. Stefan and A. M. Prokhorov (Editors).Diamond Science and Technology Vol 2 (Stefan University Press Series on Frontiers in Science and Technology) 1999ISBN1-889545-24-4.
