Acknowledgments
I would like to thank my supervisor, Dr. Jeff Dahn, for guidance, encouragement,
and his generous financial support. I have had many interesting and challenging
discussions with Dr. Dahn over the last three years and working in his lab has given
me access to state of the art research equipment and opportunities to contact world
class researchers in industrial and academic fields. I am extremely grateful for the
opportunity to have done my doctorate in his research group.
Thanks also go out to the present and former staff in the Department of Physics
and Atmospheric Science for their assistance during my time. Thank you to Anne
Murphy, Barbara Gauvin, Tanya Timmins, Jennifer Currie, and Heather Anne Jennex
in the physics office. I would also like to thank Andy George, Kevin Borgel, Dan
Chevalier, and Simon Trussler for their help and advice.
I would like to thank all members of the Dahnlab who, over the past few years,
have made this time both very enjoyable and sufficiently insane. A number of students were directly involved in this work, including Aaron Rowe, Colby Brown,
Cassandra Lowartz, Cody Watson, John Camardese, Paul Duchesne, and Ramesh
Shunmugasundaram and I would to thank them all for working and arguing with me.
I would also like to thank Jennifer Romero, Robbie Sanderson, David Stevens, and
Trevor Byrne for a lot of help with knowing how to use and fix a variety of equipment.
I also thank all the coopians for much needed distractions and useful conversations!
Thanks also go to Laura Downie who ensured I survived the writing of this thesis.
I am, as always, thankful to my family and friends who have supported me
throughout.
Halifax, December 2013
Eric McCalla
xi
I would like to thank my supervisor, Dr. Jeff Dahn, for guidance, encouragement,
and his generous financial support. I have had many interesting and challenging
discussions with Dr. Dahn over the last three years and working in his lab has given
me access to state of the art research equipment and opportunities to contact world
class researchers in industrial and academic fields. I am extremely grateful for the
opportunity to have done my doctorate in his research group.
Thanks also go out to the present and former staff in the Department of Physics
and Atmospheric Science for their assistance during my time. Thank you to Anne
Murphy, Barbara Gauvin, Tanya Timmins, Jennifer Currie, and Heather Anne Jennex
in the physics office. I would also like to thank Andy George, Kevin Borgel, Dan
Chevalier, and Simon Trussler for their help and advice.
I would like to thank all members of the Dahnlab who, over the past few years,
have made this time both very enjoyable and sufficiently insane. A number of students were directly involved in this work, including Aaron Rowe, Colby Brown,
Cassandra Lowartz, Cody Watson, John Camardese, Paul Duchesne, and Ramesh
Shunmugasundaram and I would to thank them all for working and arguing with me.
I would also like to thank Jennifer Romero, Robbie Sanderson, David Stevens, and
Trevor Byrne for a lot of help with knowing how to use and fix a variety of equipment.
I also thank all the coopians for much needed distractions and useful conversations!
Thanks also go to Laura Downie who ensured I survived the writing of this thesis.
I am, as always, thankful to my family and friends who have supported me
throughout.
Halifax, December 2013
Eric McCalla
xi