X-ray gratings have been developed for use in the wavelength region of 0.01 to 20 nm, where it is required to employ a grazing incidence configuration. Both laminar and blazed gratings have been produced by conversion of a ruled or photo-fabricated grating, using various etching procedures. The X-ray gratings are formed in a vitreous silica substrate and are relatively robust. Absolute diffraction efficiencies in the first order range from about 5% in the 0.15 to 0.3 nm region to nearly 20% for wavelengths greater than 1 nm. A new precision focusing spectrometer for use in the wavelength range 0.05 to 0.5 nm has been developed. The spectrometer design is based on the polar coordinate principle and the spectrometer can cater for concave gratings of various radii between 5 and 15 m.