  The fabrication of novel soft materials is an important scientific and
technological challenge. We investigate the response of magnetic ellipsoidal
particles adsorbed at fluid-fluid interfaces to external magnetic fields. By
exploiting previously discovered first-order orientation phase transitions we
show how to switch on and off dipolar capillary interactions between particles,
leading to the formation of distinctive self-assembled structures and allowing
dynamic control of the bottom-up fabrication of reconfigurable novel-structured
materials
