The invention is related to the adjustment of characteristics of a beam bundle of high-energy radiation emitted from a plasma, particularly for applications in semiconductor lithography. For acquiring and adjusting characteristics of a beam bundle of high-energy radiation emitted from a plasma and focused by means of collector optics, an intensity distribution of the radiation is acquired over the cross section of a convergent beam bundle in a measuring plane perpendicular to the optical axis in front of an intermediate focus of the collector optics, and intensity values are recorded in defined sectors for a quantity of reception regions of a measuring device which are aligned with different radii concentric to the optical axis, and measured quantities and control variables are determined from a comparison of the intensity values of different sectors for aligning the collector optics.