Heating of thin foil targets by a high power laser at intensities of 1017 -1019W/cm2 has been studied as a method for producing high temperature, high density samples to investigate X-ray opacity and equation of state. The targets were plastic (parylene N) foils with a buried microdot of a sample material, which was either aluminium, germanium or a mixture of germanium and titanium mixture of germanium and titanium. L-shell and K-shell spectra were taken using crystal spectrometers recording onto film and an ultrafast X-ray streak camera coupled to a conical focussing crystal with a time resolution of 1ps. The conditions in the microdot were inferred by comparing the measured spectra to synthetic spectra produced by the time-dependent collisional-radiative (CR) models FLY and FLYCHK. The data were also compared to simulated spectra from a number of opacity codes assuming local thermodynamic equilibrium (LTE). Temperature and density gradients were taken into account in the comparisons. The sample conditions, inferred from the CR modelling using FLYCHK, were 800±100eV and 1.5±0.5g/cc, in the germanium/titanium samples and 600+50/-150eV, 3–4g/cc in the pure germanium or aluminium samples. The higher densities were achieved by using a combination of long and short pulses to compress and heat the foils respectively. The experimental results and comparisons to predicted spectra are presented and discussed.