To calculate the emergent radiation field, a realistic atmospheric model and algorithm must be developed. The radiation field may be characterized by the emergent intensities of scattered light. This is possible only if the algorithm determines these intensities as dependent upon atmospheric and angular parameters.

The magnetic (B) field in the disk of a galaxy may play an important role in the dynamics and evolution of the interstellar medium (ISM). The process by which the interstellar B-field is generated and maintained is not well understood, but the general expectation is that the generated B-field will be toroidal (parallel to the disk of the galaxy). The large-scale B-field threading the cold ISM of external galaxies can be probed via optical and near-infrared (NIR) polarimetric observations. However, scattered light can introduce false-positive B-field detections into these observations and is a source of contamination. This dissertation sets a context for observations of the Milky Way B-field by assessing the degree to which scattered light affects NIR polarimetry and reporting measurements of the B-fields in the disks of several external galaxies. The polarization properties of scattered light were investigated in order to better understand the degree to which scattered light may be a source of contamination in studies of the cold ISM B-field of external galaxies. The optical and NIR polarization of three, nearby, reflection nebulae was observed, and the wavelength dependence of the polarization percentage was measured. This wavelength dependence was found to be related to the characteristics of the scattering dust grain population with the general conclusion that the total amount of polarized, scattered light decreases with increasing wavelength. This analysis was repeated for the scattering-dominated galaxy M82 to test if similar results obtained for galaxies outside the Milky Way. Observations of this object indicate that the total amount of contamination from scattered light in this object is also less at NIR wavelengths than at optical wavelengths, and they confirm that B-field generated polarization can be detected in external galaxies. A sample of edge-on galaxies was observed for NIR polarization to measure the cold ISM B-field there. These observations indicate the likely presence of non-toroidal B-fields, localized, coherent B-field structures, and spiral disk structure detectable via NIR polarimetry. A comparison of the B-fields threading the cold and hot components of the ISM suggests that these B-fields may be dynamically distinct under certain conditions.

This diploma thesis solves possibilities of utilization optical fiber as sensor. At the beginning, basic division of this sensors is desribed, their principles and usage. Then the thesis is focused on distributed sensors based on the interference of the light, interferometers. This optic fiber interferometers are described, mainly their modifications for detection and localization of vibrations along optical fiber. Significant part of the thesis deals with dual Mach--Zehnder interferometer. This interferometer is theoreticaly desribed and simulated in Matlab. Further the thesis deals with development of two aplication in Matlab software. One application is for simulation and theoretical computation of dual Mach--Zehnder interferometer. Second application serves for signal processing of acquired data that are measured on this interferometer. At the end of the thesis, dual Mach--Zehnder interferometer is designed and build in laboratory enviroment and executed measurement and localization of vibrations using this interferometer.

In this work, a new method for mass determination of single low-charged particles in the sub-picogram regime is developed. It opens applications to chemical physics and surface science via determination of growth rates. The method combines the well-known electrodynamic quadrupole ion trap in a UHV-chamber and fourier transformation of scattered light. The achieved mass resolution of down to $10^{-4}$ at 100 fg mass on a time scale of ten seconds allows a resolution of a few percent of the mass of an adsorbed monolayer and to determine growth rates down to one molecule per second on a time scale of one day. The observation of temperature dependent sticking coefficients results in the measures of the energy of an adsorption barrier. Observation of discrete steps in the rate gives information about the density of molecules in an ordered layer. Temperature dependent desorption data gives the binding energy. The dependence of these observables on the controllable curvature and charge of the substrate's surface is measurable. The first part of this dissertation consists of a description of the common theory of the quadrupole ion trap with the completion of not widely known, newly introduced, contributions to the trapping potential. These contributions lead to systematic shifts in the mass determination. In particular the influence of the inhomogenity of the electrical field, that is used for compensating the gravitational force, is investigated analytically and corroborated experimentally. It is assumed, that the particle's finite size effects in a further shift. In the experimental part initial demonstrative measurements are presented: the time-resolved adsorption of fullerene, anthracene and NO on silica spheres with 500nm diameter has been measured at room temperature. In addition the secondary electron yield of in-situ prepared particles during irradiation with monoenergetic electrons has been determined by analyzing the distribution of change of the number of elementary charges by single events of charging.

In this work, experimental and theoretical approaches are applied to the study of chemical reaction dynamics. In Chapter 2, two applications of transition state theory are presented: (1) Application of microcanonical transition state theory to determine the rate constant of dissociation of C2F3I after π∗ ← π excitation. It was found that this reaction has a very fast rate constant and thus is a promising system for testing the statistical assumption of molecular reaction dynamics. (2) A general rate constant expression for the reaction of atoms and molecules at surfaces was derived within the statistical framework of flexible transition state theory. In Chapter 4, a computationally efficient TDDFT approach was found to produce useful potential energy surface landscapes for application to non-adiabatic predissociative dynamics of the molecule CS2 after excitation from the ground state to the singlet C-state. In Chapter 5, ultrafast experimental results of excitation of CS2 to the predissociative neutral singlet C-state is presented. The bandwidth of the excitation laser was carefully tuned to span a two-component scattering resonance with each component differently evolving electronically with respect to excited state character during the quasi-bound oscillation. Scalar time-resolved photoelectron spectra (TRPES) and vector time-resolved photoelectron angular distribution (TRPAD) observables were recorded during the predissociation. The TRPES yield of photoelectrons was found to oscillate with a quantum beat pattern for the photoelectrons corresponding to ionization to the vibrationless cation ground state; this beat pattern was obscured for photoelectron energies corresponding to ionization from the vibrationally excited CS2 cation. The TRPAD data was recorded for two general molecular ensemble cases: with and without a pre-excitation alignment laser pulse. It was found that in the case of ensemble alignment (Chapter 6), the “molecular frame” TRPAD (i.e. TRMFPAD) was able to image the purely valence electronic dynamics of the evolving CS2 C-state. The unaligned ensemble TRPAD observable suffers from excessive orientational averaging and was unable to observe the quantum beat. Engineering efforts were also undertaken to eliminate scattered light background signal (Chapter 7, Appendix A) and improve laser stability as a function of ambient pressure (Appendix B) for TRMFPAD experiments. / Thesis (Ph.D, Chemistry) -- Queen's University, 2012-09-11 22:18:20.89

In this work, a new method for mass determination of single low-charged particles in the sub-picogram regime is developed. It opens applications to chemical physics and surface science via determination of growth rates. The method combines the well-known electrodynamic quadrupole ion trap in a UHV-chamber and fourier transformation of scattered light. The achieved mass resolution of down to $10^{-4}$ at 100 fg mass on a time scale of ten seconds allows a resolution of a few percent of the mass of an adsorbed monolayer and to determine growth rates down to one molecule per second on a time scale of one day. The observation of temperature dependent sticking coefficients results in the measures of the energy of an adsorption barrier. Observation of discrete steps in the rate gives information about the density of molecules in an ordered layer. Temperature dependent desorption data gives the binding energy. The dependence of these observables on the controllable curvature and charge of the substrate's surface is measurable. The first part of this dissertation consists of a description of the common theory of the quadrupole ion trap with the completion of not widely known, newly introduced, contributions to the trapping potential. These contributions lead to systematic shifts in the mass determination. In particular the influence of the inhomogenity of the electrical field, that is used for compensating the gravitational force, is investigated analytically and corroborated experimentally. It is assumed, that the particle's finite size effects in a further shift. In the experimental part initial demonstrative measurements are presented: the time-resolved adsorption of fullerene, anthracene and NO on silica spheres with 500nm diameter has been measured at room temperature. In addition the secondary electron yield of in-situ prepared particles during irradiation with monoenergetic electrons has been determined by analyzing the distribution of change of the number of elementary charges by single events of charging.