Systems and methods for the optical control of qubits and other quantum particles with spatial light modulators (SLM) for quantum computing and quantum simulation are disclosed herein. The system may include a particle system configured to provide an ordered array comprising a multiplicity of quantum particles or a multiplicity of qubits, an optical source, a SLM configured to project a structured illumination pattern capable of individually addressing one or more quantum particles or qubits of the ordered array, and a SLM controller.