Aleksandr M. Prokhorov was a pioneering Soviet-Russian physicist born on July 11, 1916, in Atherton, Queensland, Australia to Russian parents who had fled revolutionary Russia. He returned to the Soviet Union with his family in 1923 following the October Revolution, where he would eventually become one of the foundational figures in quantum electronics. After graduating in 1939, he joined the P.N. Lebedev Physical Institute in Moscow, though his academic trajectory was interrupted by World War II during which he served in the Red Army and was wounded twice. Upon returning to the Lebedev Institute after the war, he established himself as a leading researcher in radio wave propagation and oscillation theory, defending his doctoral thesis on frequency stabilization of tube oscillators in 1946 and becoming head of the Oscillation Laboratory in 1954.
Prokhorov's most significant contributions emerged from his groundbreaking work in quantum electronics, particularly his joint research with Nikolay Basov on the development of molecular oscillators and amplifiers. In 1952, they presented their theoretical foundations for creating a molecular oscillator, which they later constructed using ammonia as the active medium, publishing their seminal work in 1954-1955. Their innovative proposal for achieving population inversion using inhomogeneous electric and magnetic fields laid the essential groundwork for the maser and later the laser. Prokhorov further advanced the field in 1958 by introducing the revolutionary open type cavity design for laser resonators and, in 1963, proposed a novel laser utilizing two-quantum transitions with A.S. Selivanenko, significantly expanding the theoretical framework of quantum electronics.
For his fundamental contributions to quantum electronics, Prokhorov was jointly awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1964 alongside Charles Hard Townes and Nikolay Basov, cementing his legacy as a pivotal figure in the development of lasers and masers. His pioneering research established the theoretical and practical foundations that enabled the rapid advancement of laser technology across scientific, medical, and industrial applications worldwide. Beyond his Nobel-winning work, Prokhorov served as editor-in-chief of the Great Soviet Encyclopedia from 1969 to 1978 and was an influential Vice-President of the International Union of Radio Science. His scientific legacy continues to shape modern optics and photonics, with the principles he established remaining fundamental to contemporary laser technology and quantum electronics research despite his passing on January 8, 2002.
