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Breather mode in the many-electron dynamics of semiconductor quantum wells

We demonstrate the existence of a novel breather mode in the self-consistent electron dynamics of a semiconductor quantum well. A non-perturbative variational method based on quantum hydrodynamics is used to determine the salient features of the electron breather mode. Numerical simulations of the time-dependent Wigner-Poisson or Hartree equations are shown to be in excellent agreement with our analytical results. For asymmetric quantum wells, a signature of the breather mode is observed in the dipole response, which can be detected by standard optical means.