Scintillator-based "optical" soft x-ray (OSXR) arrays have been investigated as a replacement for the conventional silicon (Si)-based diode arrays used for imaging, tomographic reconstruction, magnetohy-drodynamics, transport, and turbulence studies in magnetically confined fusion plasma research. An experimental survey among several scintillator candidates was performed, measuring the relative and absolute conversion efficiencies of soft x rays to visible light. Further investigations took into account glass and fiber-optic faceplates (FOPs) as substrates, and a thin aluminum foil (150 nm) to reflect the visible light emitted by the scintillator back to the optical detector. Columnar (crystal growth) thallium-doped cesium iodide (CsI:Tl) deposited on an FOP, was found to be the best candidate for the previously mentioned plasma diagnostics. Its luminescence decay time of the order of ∼1-10 μs is thus suitable for the 10 μs time resolution required for the development of scintillator-based SXR plasma diagnostics. A prototype eight channel OSXR array using CsI:Tl was designed, built, and compared to an absolute extreme ultraviolet diode counterpart: its operation on the National Spherical Torus Experiment showed a lower level of induced noise relative to the Si-based diode arrays, especially during neutral beam injection heated plasma discharges. The OSXR concept can also be implemented in less harsh environments for basic spectroscopic laboratory plasma diagnostics. © 2007 Optical Society of America.