Nicolay Basov was awarded half of the 1964 Nobel Prize in physics jointly with Aleksandar Prokhorov. The other half was awarded to Charles Townes. The three won the award "for fundamental work in the field of quantum electronics, which has led to the construction of oscillators and amplifiers based on the maser-laser principle.” Nicolay Basov began his physics contributions investigating molecular oscillators with Prokhorov. They proposed an idea for a molecular oscillator. In 1955 they conducted studies on ruby spectra. By1957 they designed and constructed MASERs and suggested ruby as a candidate for a LASER. Later he contributed to the creation of semiconductor lasers.
