The Nobel Prize in Physics 1964 was divided, one half awarded to Charles Hard Townes 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,the other half jointly to Nicolay Gennadiyevich Basov and Aleksandr Mikhailovich Prokhorov 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.