We investigate a novel approach to efficient diode pumping of solid state lasers with multistripe laser diodes. The overlap between pump and resonator beam in an end-pumped configuration is optimized using a cavity wich produces an elliptic cavity mode in the gain medium and a circular spot at the laser output. With 2510 mW absorbed pump power in a 10 mm long Nd:YLF crystal we have produced up to 1350 mW multimode output power and 1050 mW with 71% slope efficiency in the TEM 00 mode at 1047 nm. This cavity design can be easily scaled to much higher power by geometric multiplexing of high power diode arrays.