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 × 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 DAΦNE-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.