ARDESIA: A fast silicon drift detector X-ray spectrometer for synchrotron applications

ARDESIA, a four-channel X-ray spectrometer based on silicon drift detectors (SDDs), is presented. It has been developed for synchrotron applications targeting especially X-ray fluorescence (XRF) and X-ray absorption spectroscopy (XAS) with good energy resolution at high count rates (a few Mcps per second). The main target applications are XRF and XAFS techniques. The system features a 2 x 2 monolithic array of 5-mm-pitch SDDs cooled with a double Peltier scheme and coupled to a four-channel CUBE charge preamplifier. Different digital pulse processors allowing operation in Mcps per second count rates are employed. The results of preliminary characterization measurements performed at both the LNF DA phi NE-Light DXR1 beamline and the ESRF LISA BM-08 are reported, in particular, XRF measurements on low atomic number elements (down to the Carbon K-line, 270 eV) and extended X-ray absorption fine structure of trace materials in pyrite.