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The IceCube Neutrino Telescope is designed to detect high energy neutrinos with a large array of photomultiplier tubes placed deep within the Antarctic ice. The way that light propagates through the ice needs to be modelled accurately to enable the paths of charged particles to be reconstructed from the distribution of their Cerenkov radiation. Light travelling through even the purest of ice will undergo scattering and absorption processes, however the ice in which IceCube is embedded has optical properties that vary significantly with depth which need to be accurately modelled. Currently, simulation of the muon background using the current ice model is unable to fully replicate experimental data. In this thesis we investigate a potential method of improving on the current generation of ice models. We introduce thin, highly absorbing layers into the current description of the detection medium and investigate the effect on the simulation of muon tracks in IceCube. We find that better agreement between simulation and data can be seen in the occupancy of optical modules, through the introduction of such absorptive layers into the existing ice layers.

The optical propagation losses resulting from the internal microstructure of ZnS thin films were investigated using a wavelength technique. Waveguide losses were determined by measuring the scattered light as a function of propagation distance along the film. Accurate measurements were obtained by using a technique we developed that employees a coherent fiber bundle to transfer the scattered light streak to a remote image plane that was scanned with an apertured photomultiplier tube. Microstructure effects on losses were found to dominate effects caused by substrate surface finish. The magnitude of the loss was found to depend upon two independent parameters: the average grain size of the polycrystalline films and the refractive index difference between ZnS and the interstitial material. Increasing the H₂O partial pressure led to lower losses as a result of reduced crystallite size, and a change in preferential crystallite orientation. A similar change in orientation was observed for films deposited onto heated substrates. Increasing the O₂ partial pressure during deposition also resulted in slightly lower waveguide losses, possibly as a result of void filling with ZnO. The modal dependence of the losses for ZnS films deposited at ambient temperature suggests that volume losses dominate surface losses for the lowest order mode while the ratio of surface to volume losses increases for higher order modes. By depositing ZnS onto substrates cooled with liquid nitrogen, adatom surface mobility was reduced which resulted in amorphous films. Losses were minimized (≤0.5 dB/cm at λ = 633 nm) for a substrate temperature of -50°C. These losses are lower than any previously reported for ZnS. However, further reduction of the substrate temperature resulted in an increase in tensile stress which eventually led to higher waveguide losses and crazing. The films deposited onto cooled substrates exhibited a low refractive index which indicates a low packing density and increased porosity. Differential water desorption, which is further evidence of increased porosity, was most noticeable in films with lower refractive indices when nonlinear prism coupling was attempted.

A particle counting instrument, the Coherent Optical Particle Spectrometer (COPS) has been developed for measuring particles in aerosol systems. It optically counts and sizes single particles one at a time as they pass through an optically defined inspection region so particle size distributions can be directly measured. COPS uses the coherent nature of light available in a laser beam to measure the phase shift in the scattered light, which is fundamentally different from previous intensity based techniques. The Van-Cittert-Zernike theorem shows that scattered light from small particles will be coherent if viewed upon at the focal point of a gathering lens. Optical homodyne detection can then be used to measure the extent of the phase shift due to the particle. Scattering mechanisms can relate the phase shift to particle diameter so particle size can be determined. An optical inspection region is given by the resolution limited blur spot diameter and depth of focus of the gathering lens. Particles scattering outside this zone will not contribute to measured phase signals. Calculations show that COPS can count in concentrations of 10('9) particles per cubic centimeter with 5% coincidence error. Mie scattering calculations, coupled with homodyne theory, predict a minimum detectable particle diameter ranging from 0.03 to 0.3 micrometers, depending on optical configuration. Theory shows that small, strongly absorbing particles impart a much larger phase shift than refractive particles so a lower detection limit is predicted for particles such as soot and silicon. Particles above one micrometer show classic resonance typical of Mie calculations. An experimental COPS system verified the predicted results from the model. Resolution of particle size ranged from 25 to 60 percent of particle diameter. Preliminary experiments showed that COPS has in situ sampling possibilities and will work for liquid systems as well. Coherent detection of scattered light shows promise for in situ measurement of submicrometer aerosols in high particle laden streams with maximum sensitivity for strongly absorbing particles.

The physical properties of single crystals of samarium monosulfide exhibit a first order semiconductor-to-metal transition near 6.5 kbar. However, thin films of SmS show only a gradual change in their properties on applying pressure and this renders the technical utilization of the material difficult. Several mechanisms have been proposed as the cause of the smoothing of the transition. They include intrinsic stress, impurities, grain size, improper stoichiometry, and porosity, all of which can be traced to the physical vapor deposition techniques employed in preparing the films. In contrast, chemical vapor deposition was employed in this study because previous work had shown that it could minimize these detrimental modifications in thin films. A new CVD system was tested using a volatile organometallic as the samarium source and reacting it with H₂S. The deposited films contained considerable amounts of oxygen as evidenced by structure analysis, and the origin was traced to the samarium organometallic. The reaction of oxygen-free samarium tricyclopentadienyl with H₂S as well as chemical transport are suggested for deposition of stress-free SmS thin films in future work.

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This thesis describes the incorporation of lanthanide-doped nanoparticles into sol-gel matrices to improve the optical properties of lanthanide ions and these materials can potentially be used in white light devices, optical amplifiers. lasers. and biolabeling. Bright white light has been generated from sol-gel thin films (SiO2 and ZrO2) made with lanthanide-doped nanoparticles through up-conversion of a single 980 nm light source. The up-conversion mechanisms involved in the generation of light has been discussed. A new and potentially efficient up-conversion process named cross-relaxation-enhanced energy-transfer (CREET) up-conversion process has been described. Preparation of semiconductor sol-gel thin films with lanthanide-doped nanoparticles has been discussed and they show energy transfer from the semiconductor matrix to the lanthanide ions. The preparation and bioconjugation of nearly monodisperse (40 nm) silica-coated LaF3:Ln3 nanoparticles has been described.