Improvements of portable energy dispersive X-ray fluorescence instrument: Resolution with Silicon Drift Detector, measurements stability using pyroelectric sources, and adaptation for space use

peer reviewedAn energy dispersive X-ray fluorescence instrument has been developed to be used for space exploration. In particular, the electronic readout has been redesigned to withstand the radiation environment of space and improve the energy resolution down to 121.17 eV using an Silicon Drift Detector (SDD). Besides, the instrument uses pyroelectric sources as excitation sources. We include a renormalization to reduce measurement fluctuation from 25.2% to 3.7%. A peak search algorithm has been implemented based on calibration to improve accuracy and reduce possible aging drift effects.ALEXI