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In its 324 bunch-mode of operation, the Advanced Photon Source (APS) has opened new avenues of femtosecond-laser science and techniques. In this new mode, if one uses the tightly focused low-pulse energy (nJ), high repetition rate fs-laser Ti:sapphire oscillator (88 MHz) on beamline 7ID, every laser pulse and X-ray bunch can be overlapped and delayed with respect to each other, resulting in a high-repetition rate pump-probe experiment that uses all the APS X-ray bunches. This paper describes an example of how coherent X-ray experiments may be used to study laser-generated strain fields in semiconductors. With an oscillator beam focused to 6 μm onto GaAs, we have observed coherent X-ray diffraction patterns with a high-resolution camera. We have developed two techniques to observe the strain field, a topographic technique and a coherent diffraction technique. The topographic technique is quite useful to achieve a coarse spatial overlap of the the laser and X-ray beams. The coherent X-ray technique allows one to push the alignment to a few microns. This paper focuses solely on the latter technique. This experiment may help to develop techniques that will be used at the future free electron laser sources, where coherent and pump-probe experiments can be done simultaneously. © 2007 American Institute of Physics [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]