Just a suggestion. I suspect you are going to find that a laser diode will not "turn on" as fast as the IR LEDs you were working with. I'm guessing that you want to increase the range of your remote control. I suspect that you may have to dramatically slow the baud rate. I would further suggest that using modulated rf might be a much better approach (assuming your only issue is range).

Anyway, that's my two cents worth.

P.S. Pay particular heed to Kai's comments. Lasers aren't that hard to learn to work with safely. On the other hand, it is incredibly easy to seriously injure yourself if you don't.