Cryogenic soft X-ray imaging spectrometers are currently being developed fo
r applications in the fields of astronomy and material sciences, In this pa
per we present experiments on optimized single devices, which show measured
energy resolutions of 4.6 eV, 8.1 eV and 20.5 eV at 525 eV, 1.5 keV and 6
keV respectively. These energy resolutions combined with a quantum efficien
cy of more than 40 % in the energy range from 0.5 to 2 keV together with a
count rate capability of 15 kHz demonstrate the overall good performance of
single Superconducting Tunnel Junctions (STJs), Assembling these optimized
single devices in a matrix read-out would provide the practical basis for
a soft X-ray imaging spectrometer.