  We report the development of a laboratory-based Rowland-circle monochromator
that incorporates a low poer x-ray (bremsstrahlung) tube source, a
spherically-bent crystal analyzer (SBCA), and an energy-resolving solid-state
detector. This relatively inexpensive, introductory level instrument achieves
1-eV energy resolution for photon energies of 5 keV to 10 keV while also
dmeonstrating a net efficiency previously seen only in laboratory
monochromators having much coarser energy resolution. Despite the use of only a
compact, air-cooled 10 W x-ray tube, we find count rates for nonresonant x-ray
emission spectroscopy (XES) comparable to those achived at monochromatized
spectroscopy beamlines at synchrotron light sources. For x-ray absorption near
edge structure (XANES), the monochromatized flux is small (due to the use of a
low-powered x-ray generator) but still useful for routine transmission-mode
studies of concentrated samples. These results indicate that upgrading to a
standard commercial high-powered line-focused x-ray tube or rotating anode
x-ray generator would result in monochromatized fluxes of order 10^6 to 10^7
photons/s with no loss in energy resolution. This work establishes core
technical capabilities for a rejuvenation of laboratory-based x-ray
spectroscopies that could have special relevance for contemporary research on
catalytic or electrical energy storage systems using transition-metal,
lanthanide, or noble-metal active species.
