Tunable Optical Matter: Electrostatic Repulsion Governs Near- and Far-Field Gold Nanoparticle Arrangements

The dynamics and equilibrium configurations of immersed optically-bound particles are complex phenomena involving several physical mechanisms such as optical forces, electrostatic interactions, and fluid dynamics. In this work, we unravel, using experiments and numerical simulations, the key role played by short-range electrostatic forces. The repulsive interaction among gold nanoparticles is adjusted by changing the salt concentration. When the electrostatic interaction is reduced, near-field (NF) optical binding with particles oriented along the polarization direction is promoted, while, for low values of the salt concentration, inter-particle repulsion induces far-field (FF) optical binding configurations oriented perpendicular to the polarization. The importance of electrostatic force is confirmed by a theoretical model in which the repulsive effect is explicitly tuned. The numerical results reproduce the measured particle configurations and highlight the dominant role of electrostatic interactions, particularly in FF optical binding configurations.