INTRODUCTION

Knowledge of the potential energy surface[1] In this thesis terms `potential energy landscape' and PES are used synonymously. At the time of writing searching for ``potential energy surface'' and ``potential energy landscape'' in Google $^{\text \textregistered }$ yielded 259,000 and 17,800 hits, respectively. (PES) and the ability to use this knowledge grant extraordinary powers of prediction about the structure, dynamics and thermodynamics of any molecular system [9]. A potential, also known as a force field, is used to formally specify the PES in theoretical studies.