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The discrimination and/or matching of dye extracts is an important aspect of forensic investigations involving textile samples. The aim of this work was to study the use of Fourier transform infrared spectrometry and diffuse reflectance to obtain IR spectra of dye samples, and the subsequent analysis of these spectra using library searching and principle component analysis. The work in this thesis has demonstrated the development of a simple method for obtaining DRIFT spectra of dye samples. Library searching and principle component analysis were used to distinguish between many types of dye samples, including extracts that were not distinguished using TLC.

Self-assembled quantum dots (QDs), nanosized semiconductors, are often known as artificial atoms due to their atomic-like spectra. For this reason they have long been proposed as a means to mediate interactions between single photons, a useful capability for photonic quantum information technology. I will describe the role of QDs in the latest developments in photonic quantum information technology (QIT), and highlight some of our progress in combining the atomic-like properties of QDs with photonic structures to perform a variety of functionalities.