Firstly, I'd like to thank my supervisor, Prof. Peter Sarre, for his boundless enthusiam, assistance and eternal optimism.
Thanks to my collegues for their time and assistance and for making Nottingham the place to be, Dr Janet Miles, Dr Tom Kerr, Dr Andrew Batey, Mr Mark Hurst, Mr Phil Couch, Dr Tim Kendall and Barbara Duigan.
In particular, a big thankyou to Dr Rob Hibbins, Dr June McCombie and Paul Boichat for all their help and support and also for reading early drafts of this document. I also wish to thank Dr Iain McNab, in particular for stimulating my interest in laser photofragment spectroscopy as an undergraduate.
Thankyou to my laboratory co-workers, Dr Alfred Geers, Dr Yang Chen and Dr Jia-xiang Han for their help in recording spectra, patience and making A44 a nice place to `live'. I would also like to thank the invaluable workshop staff and in particular Ralph Parsons, Dave Lichfield and Neil Barnes.
I wish to thank all of my (extended) family, especially Mum, Dad, Chris and Angela for all that they have done for me.
Finally I would like to thank my friends, who have kept me sane, brightened my life (and supplied beer) for the last n years: Martin Manning, Leonard Beanchi, Mayney, Lou, Jules, Rich and Doreen Mayne.