Einstein established the quantum theory of radiation and paved the way for modern laser physics including single-photon absorption by charge carriers and finally pumping an active gain medium into population inversion. This can be easily understood in the particle picture of light. Using intense, ultrashort pulse lasers, multiphoton pumping of an active medium has been realized. In this nonlinear interaction regime, excitation and population inversion depend not only on the photon energy but also on the intensity of the incident pumping light, which can be still described solely by the particle picture of light. We demonstrate here that lowering significantly the pump photon energy further still enables population inversion and lasing in semiconductor nanowires. The extremely high electric field of the pump bends the bands and enables tunneling of electrons from the valence to the conduction band. In this regime, the light acts by the classical Coulomb force and population inversion is entirely due to the wave nature of electrons, thus the excitation becomes independent of the frequency but solely depends on the incident intensity of the pumping light.
Keywords: Semiconductor nanowires; lasing; multiphoton; tunnel excitation; ultrafast.