Towards realistic magneto-optical matter: Modeling dynamics of magneto-optical dimers with arbitrary collisions

Optical matter, a rapidly growing field, aims to develop novel methods for controlling and assembling mesoscale systems through fascinating light-matter interactions. Its traditional approaches often involve complex illumination fields with costly and unstable setups. These methods require strong gradient forces, high-intensity laser spots that could harm samples, and substrate support. This work introduces an alternative approach using magneto-optical particles and straightforward illumination to effectively create magneto-optical matter. Our numerical framework, grounded in Langevin dynamics and realistic collision phenomena, serves as a robust and universal tool for exploring various optomechanical designs. To illustrate the capabilities of the developed method, we examine the impact of thermal noise, collision types, geometric variations, and resonance excitation on a dimer system, generating multiple scenarios for favorable dimer formation and subsequent manipulation. It is found that anisotropic dimers tuned initially at magneto-optical resonance can bind in stable average positions even when particle-particle collisions are present. We believe our method and subsequent findings provide essential knowledge for studying optical binding and the dynamics of any small-scale cluster of electromagnetically interacting components.