Optical traps use optical gradient forces to trap, most preferably, micrometer-scale volumes of matter in both two and three dimensions. A holographic form of optical trap can use a computer-generated diffractive optical element to create large numbers of optical traps from a single laser beam. These traps can be arranged in any desired configuration dependent on the need at hand.
Although systems are known to move particles precisely and with a relatively high degree of confidence, conventional systems require a separate hologram to be projected for each discrete step of a particle's motion. Computing multiple holograms can be very time consuming and requires substantial computational effort. Furthermore, computer-addressable projection systems required to implement such computer-generated optical traps or other dynamic optical trap systems, such as scanned optical tweezers, tend to be prohibitively expensive.