ABSTRACT Ultrafast x-ray dir action (UXRD) has become more and more prevalent in various scienti“c disciplines that areinterested in directly observing atomic motion in real time. The timescale, amplitude and phase of collectiveatomic motion can be determined with high accuracy, even when the induced amplitude is smaller than thermal”uctuations. The structural rearrangements induced by an ultrafast stimulus (charge carriers excitation or heatdeposition by a laser pulse) can be recorded in real time. Here we report on a new laser-driven plasma-x-raysource (PXS) and discuss dierent applications which will be addressed in UXRD experiments.Keywords: ultrafast x-ray dir action 1. INTRODUCTION Probing atomic motions in condensed matter on the fs-timescale enables the investigation of various physicaleects which are directly linked to the atomic structure. Ultrafast x-ray dir action (UXRD) is capable ofmonitoring such dynamics with a sub-picometer spatial and sub-picosecond temporal resolution.