Tapered diode lasers at 976 nm with 8 W nearly diffraction limited output power

High-efficiency tapered diode lasers with ridge-waveguide structure emitting at 976 nm have been realised. High wall-plug efficiencies of more than 57% result in output powers of more than 12 W for a single emitter with 3.5 mm resonator length. A nearly diffraction limited behaviour has been demonstrated up to 8.3 W CW.