This thesis would not have been realized without the assistance of many parties. I would like to thank my first advisor, the late Prof. Chin Mee Koy for making everything possible in the first place by accepting me as his student. Throughout my first five years, under his kind tutelage and advice, the project had taken form and blossomed to what it is today. I am also very grateful to Dr. Mei Ting for taking me under his wings for the remainder of my PhD and under his guidance, this dissertation is finally completed. I am also eternally grateful for the great team of researchers I have been working with, namely, Lee Chee Wei, my 'senior' by half a year, whose patience and calm outlook has a force of its own to temper down my often more rash and impulsive actions; Stevanus Darmawan, whose inquisitive nature had influenced me greatly to be more adventurous in my research. His attention to details and perseverance in investigating his projects has taught me to take pride in fine-tuning things, be it in research or in perfecting a figure. Landobasa Y.M.A.T., an enigma when it comes to his high grasp of all things mathematical and theoretical, has also greatly motivated me to overcome my fears of equations. His infinite streams of ideas are often the tide that has saved me, be it in getting unstuck from a dead end or infusing new angle of approach and research. Research fellows Dr. Xu Chendong and Dr.Yang Hua are the lifelines that I have often cling to in matters regarding fabrication. Their vast amount of practical experience has also helped reveal to me the solutions to many a problem. Although my years in NTU had been peppered with ephemeral acquaintances, the short time with them had also been wonderful, our brief conversations and co-operations often stirring the calm waters and bringing in a breath of fresh air at 'old' things. These wonderful people are Mohd. Hanif Ibrahim of USM (Malaysia), Dr Zhang Xiao of SimTech and Li Yicen and Zhao Qiu Ji of NTU, among many others. Thank you.