Killing a diode?

[trist-10]

I'm currently running my GB diode inside a dorcy jnr without any extra caps or resistors. I assume that due to this configuration, i'm over powering and therefore slowly killing my diode. Does this mean that my laser should be gradually losing brightness and power, or would it just continue to run at full power and then suddenly turn into an LED? The reason i'm asking this is when unfocused, the dot my diode is creating doesn't seem to be as bright as before (still fairly bright though), and i'm wondering whether I should buy a new battery or if this is a result of my diode slowly dying?

Below is a photo of the dot almost completely unfocused. You can see how it's not a complete circle.

 

[Chris.]

That dot is normal, in my experience the diode will just turn into an expensive LED randomly without gradual deterioration.

 

[BlueFusion]

agreed.

 

[phenol]

trist-10, you may want to clean your lens a bit

 

[Benm]

Both failure modes are possible though... but when overdriving diodes pretty hard, the 'instant poof' will usually happen way before the slow degradation kicks in. I think these diodes are so powerful that even a small defect on the mirror surfaces will heat up and escalate into complete failure rapidly. With low power ('5 mW') reds, slow death is more common.