We have developed a compact, 14.7 nm, sub-5 ps X-ray laser source at
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) together with a Mach-Zehnder
type diffraction grating interferometer built at Colorado State University
for probing dense, high intensity laser-produced plasmas. The short
wavelength and pulse length of the probe reduces refraction, absorption
effects within the plasma and minimizes plasma motion blurring. This
unique diagnostic capability gives precise two-dimensional (2D) density
profile snapshots and is generating new data for rapidly evolving
laser-heated plasmas. A review of the results from dense, mm-scale line
focus plasma experiments will be described with detailed comparisons to
hydrodynamic simulations.