Franceson, Andrey Vladimirovich

A.V. Franceson was born in Moscow on March 6, 1932. His father was one of the largest soil scientists in the country. ^[1] In 1957, he graduated with honors from the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology and joined the Institute of Radio Engineering and Electronics of the USSR Academy of Sciences , which was just organized by academicians A.I. Berg and V.A. Kotelnikov . After the death of G. S. Gorelik, A. V. Franceson went to work at the established laboratory of frequency stabilization of radio generators, headed by radiophysicist M. E. Zhabotinsky. The laboratory of M.Ye. Zhabotinsky (transformed into the department of quantum radiophysics) was involved in the work on quantum electronics. A.Franceson worked in the laboratory of quantum radiophysics and optics of the Institute of Radio Engineering and Electronics of the Russian Academy of Sciences all his life. At his workplace at the age of 72, he died on November 20, 2003.

In life, Andrey Vladimirovich was surprisingly simple, impeccably honest, modest and natural. Any work for the public was organically alien to him. He was completely devoid of vanity, and even the natural scientific ambition for a scientist was almost absent. Hence, a relatively small number of publications, reports at conferences, foreign trips.

Under the guidance of G. S. Gorelik, A. V. Franceson made his first scientific papers on the scattering of radio waves on wandering inhomogeneities.

Working in the laboratory of M.Ye. Zhabotinsky, he was among the first in the world to design, manufacture and put into operation original quantum paramagnetic amplifiers of the microwave range , providing record sensitivity when receiving radio signals from space. A. Franceson's masers were installed on radio telescopes that investigate the radiation of interstellar hydrogen and other objects, and then on receiving antennas involved in the ambitious radio-location program of the planets of the Solar System , carried out in the 1960–70s under the guidance of Academician V. A. Kotelnikov . Each of these masers was a unique, one-of-a-kind technical device, cooled to the temperatures of liquid helium , and each was invented, designed and manufactured by AV Franceson's own hands. He also provided uninterrupted operation of his quantum receivers during space communication sessions in Evpatoria . In 1976, A.V. Franceson as a member of the group of authors was awarded the State Prize for these works.

At the beginning of the 1970s, the attention of A.V.Franceson was attracted by the ingenious idea of ​​paraelectric resonance — the selective interaction of a microwave field of a certain frequency with electric dipole moments of some impurity atoms and molecules in solids. For a long time it was not possible to observe and investigate this effect in detail in the most interesting frequency ranges - insurmountable experimental difficulties interfered. Franceson coped with this task. He himself grew very sophisticated single crystals with the necessary impurities (and for this he built special melting furnaces and installations for zone cleaning ), invented and manufactured microwave resonators of millimeter wavelength range , where high voltage was applied by microscopic wires, made cryogenic equipment for helium temperatures.

In the early 1980s, it switched to a very promising business that had just arisen - fiberglass fibers. Andrey Vladimirovich designed and manufactured the first compact and reliable light-guide connectors. In this case, the central core of the fiber has a diameter of only about a micron, and when the two optical fibers are mechanically connected, their cores must coincide with absolute precision. A.V. Franceson participated in the creation of various elements of the light guide technology, in the design of the light guide lines of communication.

In recent years, he has taken a great interest in the idea of ​​an all-wave (including optical) coaxial cable of conical shape - on the tip of such a cone you can create gigantic light field strengths. Combining this idea with the technology of tunneling microscopy, A.V. Franceson worked on the creation of a device capable of investigating the properties of individual molecules located on the surface of the solid phase.

At the beginning of the XXI century, Franceson took on a completely unexpected task: the separation (liquefaction) of heavy fractions of natural gas in main pipelines . Scientists and engineers TsAGI them. Zhukovsky was offered to use a special impeller for the task, designed to create supersonic vortex flows in the pipeline . However, it was not possible to calculate and make such a turbine. A.V. Franceson solved this problem. He calculated it, designed it, and made it himself, moreover, from fused silica glass , so that the whole liquefaction process became accessible to direct observation using a laser interferometer .

For decades, A.V. Franceson taught at the Physical and Technical Institute , supervised scientific youth in his laboratory at the IRE . He has hundreds of students, they remember him with gratitude and love. Andrei Vladimirovich was really kind and benevolent, but did not like petty care, emphasizing independent work. His favorite phrase - “Think and figure it out” - was remembered by all his wards.

WikiFiztech has an interesting article about it.

About the experimental mastery of A.V. Franceson there were legends. At that time, everything was done for the first time in quantum electronics, practically no industrial equipment and devices existed, and it was under such conditions that the surprising gift inherent in Andrei Vladimirovich, which allowed him to invent and construct any design that was impossible to accomplish, was especially in demand.

• He himself designed and manufactured, using only files, soldering irons and a small lathe, the first metal Dewar vessels at the Institute for working with helium temperatures;
• he owns the copyright certificate for special cryostats , who had record-breaking indicators for that time.
• He invented and implemented a method of manufacturing thin-walled rectangular waveguides from non-magnetic steel required for masers - and he did it literally with the help of a “stick and rope”, without departing from the plumbing workbench.
• Making a permanent magnet of a special form for one of the masers , he, wielding an abrasive plate and pouring a cut on water, for a week of daily 8-hour labor sawed a superhard magnetic alloy.
• He himself invented and sharpened fantastic turning tools and cutters, which could only be seen in all details under a microscope.
• Once, constructing a special multi-frequency microwave resonator of the millimeter range to study paraelectric resonance , he drilled a millimeter wire along the axis in order to press an even thinner wire into the channel formed, separated from the shell by high-voltage insulation.
• Once he had to manually sharpen the broken needle of a tunnel microscope - for this, he had to invent a special ultra-fine abrasive.

• “In memory of Andrei Vladimirovich Franceson”, Radio engineering and electronics , 2004, volume 49, 5, pp. 639-640.