\begin{spacing}{1.3}
\small
I would like to express my gratitude to all those who gave me the possibility to
complete this dissertation: Philip Spampinato (ORNL), Adam Carroll (ORNL),
Van Graves (ORNL), Peter Titus (MIT), Sergei Striganov (FNAL), Bill Sands (Princeton),
Allan Nelson (Princeton), Ilias Efthymiopoulos (CERN), Adrian Fabich (CERN),
Friedrich Haug (CERN), Hugo Pereira (CERN), Marcus Palm (CERN), Jacques Lettry (CERN),
Otto Caretta (RAL), Peter Loveridge (RAL) , Goran Skoro (Sheffield),
Roger Bennett (RAL), and Wurigen Bo (Stony Brook).

I would like to thank accelerator group staffs at Brookhaven National Laboratory for
giving me a chance to do research for this dissertation.
I am deeply indebted to my supervisor Dr. Harold Kirk (BNL), Dr. Foluso Ladeinde, and
Dr. Kirk McDonald (Princeton) whose instruction, stimulating suggestions and encouragement helped me
in all the time for and writing of this dissertation.
Specially, I would like to thank to Dr. Kirk McDonald (Princeton) for his proof-reading of
dissertation, and his solid instruction to the edition of LaTex format in dissertation.
I would like to thank Dr. Thomas Tsang (BNL) whose help in guide of optical
diagnostic instrumentation and encouragement.
I would like to express appreciation to my committee Chairperson Dr. Thomas Cubaud, who
very pleasantly accepted my request to serve on my dissertation committee.
I also would like to express appreciation to my committee Dr. James Glimm and Dr. Roman Samulyak,
whose valuable suggestions and contradiction pointed out misleading experimental results analysis.

Finally, I would like to acknowledge financial support for this work provided by
United States Department of Energy Contract No.~DE-AC02-98CH10886.
The text of this dissertation in part is a reprint of the materials as it appears in Review of
Scientific Instruments $\textbf{79}$, 045111(2008). The co-authors listed in the publication
directed and supervised overall research projet that forms the basis for this dissertation.

%The author greatly appreciates the indispensable guide and constant encouragements
%from Prof. Foluso Ladeinde and Dr. Harold Kirk at Brookhaven National Laboratory, who served as
%the author's advisor.

%The author would like to express a special appreciation to Prof. Kirk McDonald at Princeton University
%and Dr. Thomas Tsang at Brookhaven National Laboratory for their contribution to the procedures
%used in this work.

%The author would also like to thank Prof. Thomas Cubaud for agreeing to be the Chair of his
%dissertation committee, Prof. James Glimm, for agreeing to serve on the dissertation
%committee, Prof. Roman Samulyak, for valuable suggestions on the analysis of the experimental results.

%This work was supported in part by the Unites States Department of Energy Contract
%No.~DE-AC02-98CH10886.
%The experiment was carried out at CERN (European Organization for Nuclear Research)
%in Gevenva, Swizerland and the analysis performed at Brookhaven National Laboratory.
%The text of this dissertation in part is a reprint of the materials as it appears in Review of
%Scientific Instruments $\textbf{79}$, 045111(2008). The co-authors listed in the publication
%directed and supervised the research that forms the basis for this dissertation.

\end{spacing}
