Controlling the Dynamics and Optical Binding of Nanoparticle Homodimers with Transverse Phase Gradients.

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While transverse phase gradients enable studies of driven nonequilibrium phenomena in optical trapping, the behavior of electrodynamically interacting particles in a transverse phase gradient has not been explored in detail. In this Letter we study electrodynamically interacting pairs of identical nanoparticles (homodimers) in transverse phase gradients. We establish that the net driving force on homodimers is modulated by a separation-dependent interference effect for small phase gradients. By contrast, large phase gradients break the symmetry of the interaction between particles and profoundly change the electrodynamic interparticle energy landscape. Our findings are particularly important for understanding multiparticle dynamics during the self-assembly and rearrangement of optical matter.