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Provides information on a study of the systematic changes induced in the refractive-index profile of different sets of K+-Na+ ion-exchanged waveguides on soda-lime and BK7 substrates. Information on waveguide fabribation and characterization; Results of the study; Conclusion reached on the systematic changes.

Self-collimation (SC) and mesoscopic self-collimation (MSC) have been successfully demonstrated along the directions of high symmetry of photonic crystals. Indeed, wide angular acceptances are obtained only in these directions which offer extremely flat isofrequencies. In this article, we numerically demonstrate that mesoscopic self-collimation with large angular acceptance can be achieved along arbitrary directions that are not of high symmetry. In particular, we propose a simple method that allows to easily find all the non-trivial collimation directions and corresponding frequencies. Thanks to the double periodicity of the mesoscopic crystal, these solutions can be effectively tailored in terms of direction and frequency. Moreover, non-trivial MSC solutions can be found well below the light cone. These MSC features open up the possibility of designing complex systems by combining different configurations, such as high reflection (HR) or anti reflection (AR) ones, or active materials.

In this paper we discuss the possibility of implementing a novel bio-sensing platform based on the observation of the shift of the leaky surface plasmon mode that occurs at the edge of the plasmonic band gap of metal gratings, when an analyte is deposited on top of the metallic structure. We report numerical calculations, fabrication and experimental measurements to prove the sensing capability of a two-dimensional array of gold nano-patches in the detection of a small quantity of Isopropyl Alcohol (IPA) deposited on top of sensor surface. The calculated sensitivity of our device approaches a value of 1000 nm/RIU with a corresponding Figure of Merit (FOM) of 222 RIU(-1). The presence of IPA can also be visually estimated by observing a color variation in the diffracted field. We show that color brightness and intensity variations can be ascribed to a change in the aperture size, keeping the periodicity constant, and to different types of analyte deposited on the sample, respectively. Moreover, we demonstrate that unavoidable fabrication imperfections revealed by the presence of rounded corners and surface roughness do not significantly affect device performance., (© 2011 Optical Society of America)