Rocks module was designed as a building block engine for the development or production of high PRF pulsed pumped laser. It is completely maintenance free and is about half the size of a standard arc lamp pump chamber. It employs a bilateral array of close coupled diode laser arrays for efficient direct side pumping of the solid state host material.

The Rocks pumpheads are pulse-pumped. A rod is flattened on each side to allow pumping with 2-D arrays from two sides of the rod. The rod is not exposed to water coolant, so the pointing stability is not influenced by turbulence. The rod is held in place by two mechanical standoffs and the heat is transmitted through to a back plane. Liquid coolant removes the waste heat. The rod can be coated on one end with a mirror to define one end of the cavity. By placing the other mirror at various distances from that, the pulsewidth can be lengthened or shortened accordingly. Nominal pulsewidths are 10 nsec EO Q-Switched, 100-400 msec free running and 2.5 nsec passively Q-Switched.