Colloidal Self-Organization using Light

Light can be used to generate inter-particle interactions between colloidal particles. Through mutual scattering of the light, two particles can become optically-bound and multi-particle systems can self-organize into optically-bound matter. We find that it is in the formation of optically-bound matter that unexpected dynamics are observed. Underlying the emergent dynamics, such as the formation of quasi-stable and driven structures, is the complexity of the interaction due to a feedback mechanism that is not found in most self-assembly interactions. We share what we are learning about the feedback mechanism and discuss ways in which the complexity of the self-organization can be tuned.