A high-power laser diode assembly uses a greater number of emitters in a laser diode package or uses larger, wider laser diode emitters to produce higher-power laser output. Each assembly design option includes a meniscus slow axis collimator lens having a light entrance surface imparting strong negative lens surface power to diverge an incident beam outwards and a light exit surface imparting even stronger positive lens surface power to collimate the rapidly diverging beam. In one example, a 5 mm focal length meniscus collimator lens, as compared to a standard 12 mm focal length collimator lens, can reduce by 7 mm the physical path from the collimator lens to the laser diode. In another example, a 15 mm focal length meniscus collimator lens with the same back focal length as that of a standard 12 mm collimator facilitates increasing chip-on-submount width from 200 μm to 250 μm.