Electron soliton in semiconductor nanostructures

An electron wave packet formed in a semiconductor heterostructure containing a quantum well covered by a metal surface is considered. It is demonstrated that the potential of the charge induced by the electron wave packet on the conducting surface possesses a component of lateral confinement stabilizing its shape. The existence of electron solitons, i.e., running electron wave packets propagating without changing their shape, is demonstrated. In the scattering phenomena, the electron interacting with the induced charge tends to behave like a classical particle with the backscattering probability approaching a step dependence on the incident momentum as the distance from the metal surface is decreased. This effect enhances the ballistic character of transport for fast electrons and facilitates the trapping of slowly moving electrons.