AUSTRALIAN students have invented a tractor beam.

FOX News reports that students from the Australian National University have succeeded in moving particles a metre-and-a-half using only the power of light.

Very tiny particles, admittedly, but particles nonetheless.

ANU researcher Andrei Rhode said the device shines a hollow laser beam around tiny glass particles.

The laser heats the area around the particles, but the particles stay cool and start drifting.

When they stray near the hot laser beam, they get nudged back into the centre by the heated molecules bouncing around.

More heat is introduced under and off to the sides of the particles and gently forces them up the hollow laser tube.

The speed and direction the particles move in can then be manipulated by changing the brightness of the beams.

"With the particles and the laser we use, I would guess up to 10 metres in air should not be a problem," Mr Rhode said.

"The max distance we had was 1.5 metres, which was limited by the size of the optical table in the lab."

Unfortunately for sci-fi fans, the technology won't work in space, because it requires the use of heated gas, which can't exist in the vacuum of outer space.

But Mr Rhode said there's plenty of possible uses for his tractor beam on Earth, such as moving dangerous substances and microbes, and for sample taking and biomedical research.