  We report the results from a deep HST NICMOS H-band imaging survey of a
carefully selected sample of 33 luminous, late-stage galactic mergers at z <
0.3. Signs of a recent galactic interaction are seen in all of the objects in
the HST sample, including all 7 IR-excess Palomar-Green (PG) QSOs in the
sample. Unsuspected double nuclei are detected in 5 ULIRGs. A detailed
two-dimensional analysis of the surface brightness distributions in these
objects indicates that the great majority (81%) of the single-nucleus systems
show a prominent early-type morphology. However, low-surface-brightness
exponential disks are detected on large scale in at least 4 of these sources.
The hosts of 'warm' AGN-like systems are of early type and have less pronounced
merger-induced morphological anomalies than the hosts of cool systems with
LINER or HII region-like nuclear optical spectral types. The host sizes and
luminosities of the 7 PG~QSOs in our sample are statistically indistinguishable
from those of the ULIRG hosts. In comparison, highly luminous quasars, such as
those studied by Dunlop et al. (2003), have hosts which are larger and more
luminous. The hosts of ULIRGs and PG QSOs lie close to the locations of
intermediate-size (about 1 -- 2 L*) spheroids in the photometric projection of
the fundamental plane of ellipticals, although there is a tendency in our
sample for the ULIRGs with small hosts to be brighter than normal spheroids.
Excess emission from a young stellar population in the ULIRG/QSO hosts may be
at the origin of this difference. Our results provide support for a possible
merger-driven evolutionary connection between cool ULIRGs, warm ULIRGs, and
PG~QSOs although this sequence may break down at low luminosity. (abridged)
