The characterization of subpicosecond laser produced plasmas is currently being investigated by the Livermore ultrashort pulse laser group. A 800‐nm, 150‐fs, 35‐mJ laser is focused to a 7‐&mgr;m spot on solid aluminum targets, producing XUV (<1 keV),Kshell (1.5–30 keV), and hard (≥3.0 keV) x‐ray emission. TheK‐shell emission is studied using a Von Hamos crystal spectrograph with a KAP crystal curved to an 80‐mm radius, resulting in a calculated resolution ofE/&Dgr;E≊400. The dispersed x rays are detected with a microchannel plate intensified reticon detector which relays the images out of the chamber and displayed on a computer monitor. The hard x rays are monitored with an array of filter x‐ray diodes, covering energies from 3 to 75 keV. The XUV emission is monitored with a variably spaced line grating, flat field spectrometer, and a grazing incidence spectragraph. The diagnostics will be presented along with current data from experiments. This work was performed under the auspices of the U. S. Department of Energy by Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory under Contract No. W‐7405‐ENG‐48.