The operational characteristics of a laser‐initiated vacuum spark is studied with reference to its x‐ray emission. The present system employs a fast capacitor bank (current rise time=1 &mgr;s) with input energy of 4.4 kJ. The studies here show that for such a system, the system parameters can be adjusted for satisfactory optimum operation with respect to x‐ray emission reproducibility. It is observed that intense x‐ray point sources are obtained consistently by choosing the rightV–dcombination, whereVis the discharge voltage in kilovolts anddis the electrode separation in millimeters. For the present system, this combination is found to be 20–5 and a x‐ray reproducibility of better than 80% has been achieved in this system.