please some really small answears are all i seek for

hello guys , I have just extracted a laser diode from a GH22NP20 LG DVD-burner
what is the energy that this diode can produce ?
the 2nd question is, is there by any chance a way to figure what is the amount of the maximum current i can push to the diode without burning it ?
i built a driver from an lm317 , I have set it to produce 250 mA at most
my final question is , how safe it is to power the driver with 6 AA batteris ?
thank you very very much
and excuse my bad english

1] It is a 22x DVD burner. It should do 200mW.
2] 250mA is fine
3] 6AA is no problem.

^ What he said.

Though you shouldn't need more than 4 AA's. 6V input should be more than enough. Increasing the voltage beyond that gives no benefit other than making the driver run hotter.

It depends on the drop voltage of the diode and the voltage delivered by the batteries.
Normally a lm317 should regulate at ~5.2V on the red diodes ( tested with my bench psu ) but if you have only 4 NiMH batteries with 1.2V each, the total voltage of 4.8V isn't enough. Although the diode won't go broke it receive less current.

He stated AA's though and not NiMH's, So using AA's was what my advice was based off of. It will run fine with 6, but it will run cooler with 4.

I think if he wants to go the rechargable route, 2x li-ion's would be an easier route than NiMH.

oh thank you guys !, I have recently finished building my very first laser !!
but it didn't burn as i expected , i thought that it would burn from like 2.5 meters far , also , it would take it a while to light the matches up , I read some mentioning that you would increase your laser diode if you had a good heat sink , i don't understand how a good heatsink affect the power of the diode ?!!? , did I miss understand what does a heat sink means ?
any way , what are my other choices to power it up ? , iam trying to put a maximum power switch so i can switch between the safe current and the a little high current
so my question is what is the maximum current that can be safe for my diode ?? or even half safe cause i really really want it to burn much stronger and further
thank you guys
hope to answer me soon