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iii To my parents and to Sara iv Acknowledgements As my graduate career comes to an end, I am duly reminded of the tremendously talented group of scientists and engineers I have met at Caltech. While it is impossible to properly thank all those that contributed to and enriched my experience at Caltech, I would like to point out those that impacted me the most. First and foremost, I would like to thank my advisor Dan Weitekamp. Dan took me in his group even though I came in as a synthetic chemist and gave me the opportunity to work on very interesting projects spanning many disciplines. Dan is a vast source of knowledge, is impressively creative, and had remarkable patience for my erratic work style. In the Weitekamp group, I had a very fruitful interaction with Dr. Bruce Lambert. While we never worked on a project together, Bruce was always ready to talk about my project or about physics in general. His approach to problem solving is amazing. Outsid