The instrumentation developments in X-ray spectroscopy for ultra-fast time-resolved measurements with soft X-rays done in HZB Berlin during the last years are described. The significant performance improvements achieved this way are based on Fresnel diffraction from structures being fabricated on a surface of a total externally reflecting mirror. The first type of this spectrometer, an off-axis reflection zone plate, has been implemented at the BESSY Femto-slicing setup and shows on the order of 20 times higher flux in the focal plane compared to the classical grating monochromator beamline. It has proven to serve very precise experiments with a time resolution down to 100 fs on magnetic materials after optical laser pulse excitation. The first test of the parallel diffraction spectrometer for fluorescence analysis was also done recently. The spectrometer is well matched for measurements of fluorescence spectra exited by an electron or x-ray micro-beam with the size of less 1 µm.
