Researchers at Penn State University discovered that by using a high-powered laser diode as a transmitter and an avalanche photo diode as a receiver, the two components for optical communication need not be in direct line of sight to function.
Jarir Fadlullah, a graduate student who presented the study at the SPIE Phonotics West Conference in San Francisco this week, commented: "The optical system we have offers a very large bandwidth, thus a very high speed.
He added: "We can send one gigabit per second or more over a gigahertz band."
Mr Fadlullah pointed out that there are no transmission problems with the devices unless the walls of the surrounding room are painted black.
Last month, academics at Arizona State University described how the key to creating their new form of stackable memory cells was the design of the diodes.
