Portable handheld sensors for detecting explosives, wearable sensors that can detect chemical agents, compact devices for fast and accurate identification of defects in computing chips as well as advanced, non-invasive imaging techniques that could detect tiny tumours could become a reality sooner than expected as researchers around the world are actively studying novel ways to exploit terahertz (THz) technology. Giving a big boost to this global research effort is a major technological breakthrough in terahertz technology achieved by researchers from the National University of Singapore (NUS).