  Counter-propagating light fields have the ability to create self-organized
one-dimensional optically bound arrays of microscopic particles, where the
light fields adapt to the particle locations and vice versa. We develop a
theoretical model to describe this situation and show good agreement with
recent experimental data (Phys. Rev. Lett. 89, 128301 (2002)) for two and three
particles, if the scattering force is assumed to dominate the axial trapping of
the particles. The extension of these ideas to two and three dimensional
optically bound states is also discussed.
