A mathematical model to describe the far-field of a high-power laser diode (LD) beam is presented. The laser beam propagation is studied by the vector Rayleigh-Sommerfeld far-field diffraction integral formula The far-field distribution of the LD beam is studied in detail; the light polarized parallel and perpendicular to the junction plane are all considered. This model is employed to predict the light intensity of high-power LDs. The computed intensity distributions are in a good agreement with the corresponding measurements. This model can be easily used to analyze the propagation properties of the high-power LD beam.