End of bomb sniffer dogs! Scientists have developed a new 100 times more faster and sensitive laser device capable of detecting tiny traces of explosive vapour in a jiffy.

The prototype - a pulsed, quantum laser-based, cavity ring-down spectrometer - is being tested at the US government's Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico.

The laser machine developed by the University of New South Wales is "about 100 times more sensitive and 100 times faster than any other detection device", Associate Professor Charles Harb said.